Jennifer MacAvity and the Philosophers Stone
by JMBJ
Summary: Jennifer MacAvity is starting her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. With starange teachers, lessons in magic and new friends this year is going to become an adventure for Jen. Book 1/7
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don´t own anything all rights go to J.K. Rowling.**

 **Chapter 1: Through the Portal**

An eleven years old girl, who held the hand of her two years younger little sister, hurried through the crowd at King´s Cross station. Her golden blond hair was as usual pulled up in a braid that reached just below her shoulder blades and her sapphire blue eyes shined with excitement.

The girl walked so fast she bumped into a lot of people and had to apologise.

"Jennifer MacAvity slow down, it isn´t good for our reputation if you knocked people over," her mother Anne MacAvity said irritably.

It was only the girl's mother who called her by her full name, her father, Henry MacAvity, called her Jenny but everyone else called her Jen.

"But, mother, the train is nearly here and I want to see when they come out from the platform," Jen said excitedly before she started to drag her little sister Olivia even faster through the crowd.

Their parents followed them in a much slower pace.

When they came to the wall between platform 9 and 10 they stood and waited next to a group red haired people. After five minutes the first of the students stated to come out of the wall.

It didn´t take long until a blond and blue eyed boy of fifteen came out of the portal laughing together with two of his class mates. The boy was pushing a trolley whit a trunk and on the trunk were a cage with a brown barn owl.

"Peter!" Jen called before rushing to him and throwing herself around his middle in a tight hug. "I missed you!"

"I missed you too, little sister." Peter said before hugging her back.

After he had hugged Jen he hugged Olivia too but he only said a polite hello to their parents. After they had all said hello they started to walk back to the car.

Peter had just finished his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; Jen could still remember how the strange man, that they later discovered was a wizard, had barged into their house and told Peter he was a wizard. None of them had believed him until he had turned one of the flower pots into a turtle with a flower growing from the shell.

Jen, Peter and Olivia had all been really excited about that magic existed but their parent's hadn´t been nearly as excited. Both Mr and Mrs MacAvity were very successful lawyers and they didn´t want anything ruining their reputation and if one of their children was a wizard they thought that that could definitely ruin their reputation.

They had nearly forbidden Peter to go to Hogwarts but he had begged them until they finally said yes. But they also said that they didn´t want to have anything to do with anything magic.

So Peter had gotten a bit of money from their parents and then he had followed the wizard to a place that was called Diagon Alley.

Jen and Olivia had also wanted to come with them but their parents had forbidden it. Jen who had been seven at the time had been very angry and cried and screamed before she had ran up to her room and cried.

Jen´s parents had never let her follow Peter to Diagon Alley, they said that they didn´t want Jen or Olivia to become like him and that they believed that if the sisters were allowed to go to Diagon Alley it was more likely that they took after Peter.

When the whole family MacAvity had packed themselves into the car Mr MacAvity started to drive home from King´s Cross.

"Peter, you got to tell us about your year!" Olivia said excitedly.

"I´ll do it when we come home," he laughed as he ruffled her brown hair, but Jen saw him cast a glance at their parents disapproving looks.

Jen and Peter had both taken after their father with golden hair and sapphire blue eyes. In fact people always use to say that Jen looked like a girl version of Peter. Olivia, though, had taken after their mother with forest green eyes and chocolate brown hair.

"But while we are waiting till we come home you can tell me about your year," Peter said and looked at Olivia expectantly.

Olivia immediately cast herself into a long story about her really good grades and her friends.

Olivia had always good grades and was really good at making friends and neither any of their parents nor had any of the siblings seen her do any accidental magic. It was no surprise that Olivia was Mr and Mrs MacAvity´s favourite child.

Before they knew Peter was a wizard he had been their parents favourite. He had always been good in school and gotten the highest grades in class, he was polite and he had had a lot of friends.

Jen had always been the odd one out of the three siblings. She got okay grades but she didn´t have many friends, she was in fact bullied at school. She had also shown many signs of accidental magic, to her parent's great disappointment. Jen was really glad that she was showing signs of magic because she really wanted to get in to Hogwarts.

Mr and Mrs MacAvity hated that Jen was showing signs of accidental magic and tried to tell her to not do it again, when she had done some form of accidental magic, but Jen always said she didn´t do it knowingly. Her parents didn't believe her and she was often admonished of her parents for it.

Suddenly Jen realised that Olivia had stopped talking so she looked up and out of the window and saw that they was nearly home. They had just drove onto Rose Street with it´s perfect three storey houses painted in pale pink or pale yellow, perfectly cut hedges and lawns and the expensive cars. Jen had always hated living here, everyone living here was rich and the only thing they cared about was their money and showing others that they were rich.

If you ever walked into one of the houses it was like walking into a furnishing magazine and the pale pink house with a number seven on that belonged to the MacAvity´s were no different. Their cars were expensive, their lawn and hedges perfectly cut and the house perfectly furnished. The only difference from the other hoses was that the pictures of the children at the mantel piece and the children's rooms on the third floor, that they had furnished themselves.

Olivia's room was nearly all pink and was styled like a girl of nine would like. Peter had styled his room in blue and bronze so he could show that he belonged to Rawenclaw house at Hogwarts. He also had a lot of books that was stuffed in a bookcase, a large desk where he could do his homework and a place beside the window for his owl Popcorn. Jen´s room was quiet simple she had a big bookcase, a desk and an armchair where she could sit and read.

They drove up to their hose and everyone jumped out, their parents and Olivia walked up to the house while Peter took out his trunk and Jen helped him with Popcorn´s cage. They walked up to Peter´s room and he dumped his trunk at the foot end of the bed while Jen put Popcorns cage on the desk and then let him out of the cage.

About five seconds after Jen let Popcorn out of his cage Olivia came into the room.

"You know Popcorn isn´t allowed to be out of the cage," she said as fast as she saw him flying around the lamp in the ceiling.

"What mother doesn't know, doesn´t hurt her," Jen said. "Besides he has been sitting in a cage all day so he deserves to stretch his wings a little bit."

Olivia nodded before she went and sat on Peter's bed; Jen followed her and sat down beside her.

"Can you tell us about your year at Hogwarts now Peter?" Olivia asked excitedly.

"Yeah! Please, Peter!" Jen said as excitedly as her little sister.

"Okay, Okay!" Peter said laughing. "Well as I told you in my letters I have been chosen to play Beater at the Rawenclaw Quidditch team."

"It´s you who´s beating at the Bludgers, right?" Jen asked.

Jen and Olivia had each gotten a book about Quidditch from their brother for Christmas in his first year and Jen had read it at least a thousand times.

"Yes, exactly!" Peter said with a smile. "We on the team trained really hard but we lost against both Gryffindor and Slytherin but we won against Hufflepuff."

Peter proceeded to tell them about his year at Hogwarts and he finished his story by telling them about how Rawenclaw had come on third place in the house cup after Gryffindor and Slytherin.

When he had finished telling them about his year Olivia went down to help their parents with the food while Jen stayed.

"So how has your year been?" Peter asked Jen as he put Popcorn back in his cage again.

"It has been quiet good," Jen said. "Danvers and her gang hasn´t been that bad and my grades are actually better, even math."

Tracy Danvers was the girl that was bullying Jen at school. Tracy had a gang that always helped her bully Jen and all of them lived at Rose Street. Worst of all was that Tracy lived next door.

"And have you been showing any more signs of accidental magic?" Peter asked.

"I think I have," Jen said. "But mother and father don't know."

"Okay, what did you do?" Peter said smiling.

"Danvers was teasing me in the cafeteria and I got a bit angry and suddenly she wasn´t in front of me anymore, she was at the other side of the cafeteria lying in the food trays." Jen said. "And I promise that it was an accident, I didn´t do it willingly!"

Peter looked at her for some seconds before nodding.

"I believe you."

"Thank you!" Jen said and hugged her brother.

Just when Jen ended the hug they both heard Mrs MacAvity calling that the food was ready and they walked down to the bottom floor, where the dining room where, to eat with the family.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don´t own anything all rights go to J.K. Rowling**

 **Chapter 2: Owls and Letters**

 **AN: I´m sorry that I haven´t put anything up in a so long time but I have had to study a lot because I got pneumonia and was sick in two weeks.**

 **I´m sorry for all the spelling and grammar mistakes. I´m not a native English speaker and I´m doing my best but please don´t be mean about it.**

It was mid July and Jen was really happy that the summer holiday had started, because now she could read in her room or in the back yard all day without worrying about homewrok.

Jen loved to read especially adventure and fantasy books. When her brother had started his second year at Hogwarts he had left some of his first year books at home and Jen had tried to read them but her mother had found out and taken them from her and forbidden her to read them.

But at the moment Jen wasn´t reading, she was walking home from the grocery store because her mother had forgotten to buy milk to dinner. It was in the middle of the afternoon and it was really warm.

Jen was nearly home when someone walked into her from behind. Jen nearly fell over but managed to catch herself in the last minute.

"Oh, I´m so sorry," Jen heard a hated voice say. "But you are so small that I didn´t see you."

Jen was shorter than most in her year and in the year below and it was one of the favourite things Tracy Danvers and her gang picked on her for.

Jen turned to the brown hair brown eyed girl and smiled a strained smile.

"Hello, Tracy it´s nice to see you," Jen said before starting walking again, Jen had learned that if Tracy was alone it was easier to just pretend she wasn´t there or hadn´t done something to make her stop teasing Jen.

"So you think it´s nice to see me, well, that´s nice, I can´t say the same about you though, you are just too ugly to ever be nice to look upon," Tracy said with a laugh.

Jen who had just come to the front door of her house opened the door before turning to Tracy.

"Well, goodbye Tracy," Jen said. "And I´m sorry that I lied before, but it wasn´t nice to see your face either."

Jen then turned and walked into the house and closing the door after her.

((&))

When Jen walked into the kitchen she met Peter.

"Why are you looking so sad?" he asked.

"I met Danvers outside," Jen answered.

"What did she say?" Peter said furiously.

"You know the usual, that I was short and such."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I don´t care what Danvers says anymore," Jen said as she put the milk in the fridge then she turned and gave Peter a reassuring smile.

"Good," Peter said and kissed the top of her head before walking into the living room to look at TV with their father.

Jen walked up to her room to finish a book she had nearly finished reading before she had gone to the grocery store.

After dinner Jen went going to bed. Jen let her window be open while she slept because she thought it was quiet warm in her room.

((&))

The next morning Jen woke of that something landed on her bed. When Jen open her eyes she saw that it was a big brown owl that had woken her and was now sitting on her bed with a letter in its beak. Jen carefully took the letter from the owl. When she had taken the letter the owl flew out of her open window.

Jen followed the owl's flight when it flew away over the neighbouring houses roofs. Why´s an owl delivering a letter to me, she thought, Peter´s the wizard in the family.

Jen looked down at the letter in her hand. The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment. Jen carefully turned the letter over to read the address that was written in emerald green ink.

 _Miss J. MacAvity_

 _The third floor bedroom on the right hand side_

 _7 Rose Street_

 _London_

Jen stared at the letter. It's to me, were the only thing she could think at first. Then she stated to think who in the magical world send her a letter and she could only come up with one answer.

Jen ripped the envelope open, pulled out the letter and started reading.

 _HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDY_

 _Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

 _(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorrc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

 _Dear Miss MacAvity_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Minerva McGonagall_

 _Deputy Headmistress_

Jen read the letter again while a big smile crept onto her face. She was going to Hogwarts.

"Peter!" Jen screamed while jumping out of her bed and running out of her room.

"Peter, Peter, look what I´ve got!" Jen screamed as she ran into his room.

Peter, who had been reading his own Hogwarts letter, looked up from studying a blue and bronze badge.

"What?" He said a bit annoyed because he hadn´t seen the letter Jen was holding.

"I got my Hogwarts letter!" Jen screamed in his ear as she jumped up on his bed and showed her letter into his face.

"Congratulations!" Peter said and hugged her. "And I got made a Prefect, look!"

Peter gave her the blue and bronze badge he had been studying before, it also had big P on it.

"Congratulations Peter!" Jen said with a big smile as she gave him back his Prefects badge. "Come we have to tell mother, father and Olivia, they are probably already down in the kitchen eating breakfast."

Jen jumped off Peter's bed and had already started to go to the door when Peter stopped her.

"You know mother and father isn´t going to be happy about this right?" He said.

"Yeah, I know," Jen said sadly. "But I have to tell them."

"Yeah, I know," Peter said solemnly as they walked down to the kitchen, their moods significantly dampened.

((&))

When Peter and Jen came into the kitchen they saw their parents drinking coffee and reading the newspaper while their sister was eating a nearly finished plate with fried bacon and eggs.

When Jen and Peter sat down at the table their parents looked up at them and gave them a stern nod before looking down at their newspapers again while Olivia didn´t acknowledge them at all and just continued to eat her bacon.

Jen and Peter glanced at each other before speaking.

"I just got my Hogwarts letter," Peter said. "I was made Prefect."

"Good," their father said.

"I also got a Hogwarts letter," Jen said.

Both Mr and Mrs MacAvity looked up from their newspapers and fixed her with a steely gaze each. Her little sister on the other hand jumped up from her stool and hugged Jen.

"Oh, Jen I´m so happy for you," Olivia said excitedly. "I wish I could go, but I can´t so you have to tell me everything when you come back!"

"Of course I will," Jen said and smiled at her sister.

"Are you done eating, sweetheart?" Their mother asked and Olivia nodded. "Then you can go and clean yourself a bit before we go to the park later today, can´t you?"

Olivia nodded before running out of the kitchen. When Olivia was out of the room both parents turned to Jen.

"Jen you're not going to Hogwarts," their mother said.

"But mother I want to go to Hogwarts!" Jen said. "I´ve wanted it since Peter got his first Hogwarts letter, please, please, let me go!"

"You can go," their father said and glanced at his wife. "But are you certain you want to, we can get you into a really good school if you want to."

"Yes, we can even get you into a really good law school," their mother said. "They even take in people with your grades."

Jen ignored her mother's last comment and stared her right in the eye instead.

"I want to go to Hogwarts," Jen said determinately. "And nothing you do can stop me."

 **AN: So the second chapter is done. I have chapter three already written and chapter four half written so I hope I will get time to upload the next chapter soon.**

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don´t own anything all rights go to J.K. Rowling**

 **Chapter 3: Diagon Alley**

 **AN: So here is chapter three!**

 **It´ll probably be some time before I´ll have to write and post something again because of school.**

 **I really hope you´ll like it**

The day after Jen and Peter got their letters they both said goodbye to a very jealous Olivia and then went on to the bus to Charing Cross Road from where they would get to Diagon Alley.

Both Jen and Peter had gotten a bit of money from their parents before they left. Both parents had looked very displeased when they had given their children the money, it was probably because they didn´t want to give their children money that would be used to buy magical things.

As they sat on the bus Jen started to read the list with things she would need during the year.

 _HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDY_

 _UNIFORM_

 _First-year students will require:_

 _Three sets of plain work robes (black)_

 _One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear_

 _One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)_

 _One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)_

 _Please note that all pupils´ clothes should carry name tags_

 _SET BOOKS_

 _All students should have a copy of each of the following:_

 _ **The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)**_ _by Miranda Goshawk_

 _ **AHistory of Magic**_ _by Bathilda Bagshot_

 _ **Magical Theory**_ _by Adalbert Waffling_

 _ **A Beginner´s Guide to Transfiguration**_ _by Emeric Switch_

 _ **One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi**_ _by Phyllida Spore_

 _ **Magical Drafts and Potions**_ _by Arsenius Jigger_

 _ **Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them**_ _by Newt Scamander_

 _ **The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection**_ _by Quentin trimble_

 _OTHER EQUIPMENT_

 _1 wand_

 _1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

 _1 set of glass or crystal phials_

 _1 telescope_

 _1 set brass scales_

 _Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad_

 _PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS_

Jen read the list twice before turning to her brother.

"Peter, the letter says that I´m allowed to take a pet with me, can I please get a pet?" Jen said pleadingly.

Jen loved animals and had always wanted one but their parents hadn't allowed her to get one. When Peter had come home with Popcorn after his first time in Diagon Alley Jen had been so jealous that she had refused to talk to Peter for two days.

"Yes, you can get a pet," Peter said. "But you´re going to have to take care of it yourself."

"Thank you, Peter!" Jen said happily and gave her brother a hug. "And I know that I can take care of a pet."

They sat in silence before Jen realised a thing.

"Peter wizards have a different kind of money, right?" Jen asked and Peter nodded. "How are we going to get such money?"

"Well, as you said, wizards have a different kind of money," Peter said. "And we are going to exchange our muggle money..."

"Muggle?" Jen said not understanding the word because Peter didn´t talk much about the magical world at home.

"Muggles are people without magical powers like our parents," Peter said. "But, as I was saying, we are going to exchange our muggle money at the wizarding bank Grigotts. We will get gold Galleons, silver Sickles and bronze Knuts. Seventeen Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it´s a bit confusing in the beginning but you will get the hang of it soon enough."

"Okay," Jen said as she was repeating the information in her head.

"Oh, I nearly forgot to say that Gringotts is owned by goblins," Peter said.

"Goblins!" Jen said chocked.

"Yeah, they are not very friendly so don´t get on their bad side," Peter said.

"Okay," Jen said.

About five minutes later the bus stopped at Charing Cross Road and they stepped off. They started to walk up the street and Jen tried to see where the entrance to Diagon Alley was but because she didn´t know how it looked she didn´t know what she was looking for.

"Peter where is the entrance to Diagon Alley?" Jen asked as they stopped at the opposite side of the street from a big bookstore.

"The entrance to Diagon Alley is through a pub called the Leaky Cauldron," Peter said. "Which, actually, is just over there."

Peter pointed to the opposite side of the street and Jen looked to where he pointed and saw a tiny, grubby-looking pub lying between the big book shop and a record shop.

"It´s only wizards that can see it, muggles can´t see it," Peter said. "Come on we can´t stand here all day."

They crossed the street and walked into the pub. Inside it was dark and shabby and there were only two people there, an old lady with a tiny glass of sherry and the barman who was quiet bald and looked like a gummy walnut.

"Hey, Tom," Peter said to the barman who nodded to him before returning to cleaning glasses.

Peter led Jen through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a dustbin and a few weeds. Peter took a step towards the dustbin and pulled out his wand. It was made of oak, 11 inches, slightly springy and with a core of dragon heartstring. He then tapped a few stones at the wall.

"Three up and two across," Peter said to Jen as he tapped the stones. "Remember that."

The stones he had tapped started to wiggle and a hole appeared. The hole became bigger and bigger until it became an archway which revealed a cobblestone street that waved itself out of sight.

"Welcome to Diagon Alley," Peter said as he stepped through the archway.

Jen followed him with wide eyes and mouth agape. Diagon Alley was amazing and Jen tried to watch everything at once but it was so much to watch that it was impossible. But she saw a lot of things, she saw an apothecary, a cauldron shop, a robe shop, a pet shop and a lot of witches and wizards who all were dressed in robes, cloaks and pointy hats.

Peter and Jen started to walk up the street towards Gringotts and as they walked Jen looked at the shops and cached snippets of conversations between witches and wizards.

"16 Sickles for a pound of dragon liver, this is going to ruin us..." a young woman said outside the apothecary.

"George, stop throwing beetle eyes at your brother!" a middle aged woman said to a red haired boy that seemed to be a year or two older than Jen.

"Grandma, I´ve lost Trevor again," a boy in Jens´ age said to an older woman in a strange vulture hat.

"Oh, Neville, not again!" the older woman answered.

Jen turned to her brother to ask how much further it was to Grigotts when she saw him walking towards a shop.

"Look Jen, it´s the new Nimbus 2000," he said excitedly and pointed at a broomstick on displayed in the window of the shop.

"I guess it´s a very good broomstick," Jen said.

"It´s the best there is," Peter said excitedly. "Unfortunately it´s too expensive for me to get but I´ve got enough money to buy a cheaper broomstick this year."

They continued walking up the street while looking around at the shops. After a while Jen saw a snow white building raising above all the other small buildings. Guarding the gleaming bronze doors of the building, wearing a uniform in scarlet and gold, were goblins.

Jen and Peter walked up the white stone stairs to the bronze doors. The goblins guarding the doors bowed as they walked through them. At the other side of the bronze doors Jen now saw a pair of silver doors with words engraved upon them:

 _ENTER, STRANGER, BUT TAKE HEED_

 _OF WHAT AWAITS THE SIN OF GREED,_

 _FOR THOSE WHO TAKE, BUT DO NOT EARN,_

 _MUST PAY MOST DEARLY IN THEIR TURN,_

 _SO IF YOU SEEK BENEATH OUR FLOORS_

 _A TREASURE THAT WAS NEVER YOURS,_

 _THEF, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, BEWARE_

 _OF FINDING MORE THAN TREASURE THERE._

As Jen walked through the silver doors she promised herself that she would never even think about steeling anything from Gringotts.

Jen walked out in an enormous marble hall full with goblins sitting on high stools behind a long counter, helping costumers, scribbling in ledgers, weighing coins on brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses and showing people in and out from doors in the sides of the hall.

Jen and Peter walked up to a goblin that was writing something in a ledger.

"Hello, we would like to exchange some muggle money," Peter said.

The goblin looked up from the ledger and trained his small greedy eyes on them. He put the quill down with his long fingers before speaking to them.

"Of course, how much would you like to change?" the goblin said.

Both Jen and Peter took out the money they had gotten from their parents, Peter also took out the money he had spared from earlier years, and gave it to the goblin.

The goblin called on another goblin and gave him the money before the other goblin walked through a door out of the hall. After a few minutes the goblin came back with two sacks of money in his hands which he gave to the first goblin before leaving again.

"Here," the goblin said and gave the bigger sack to Peter and the smaller to Jen before picking up the quill and continuing to write in the ledger.

Jen and Peter walked out of the building and down the stairs before they stopped at the street.

"Where are we going first?" Jen asked while studying her list of things she needed. "Oh, please can we get my wand first?"

"I don´t think so," Peter said. "It can take a very long time to get a wand so I think it´s best if we take that last. But both you and I need new robes so I suggest we start there."

They started to walk towards _Madam Malkin´s Robes for All Occasions._ Jen was a little disappointed that she wouldn´t get her wand right away but didn´t let it ruin her mood.

When they walked in to the shop they were met by a chubby witch in purple robes.

"Hogwarts, dears?" she asked.

They both nodded.

"Follow me," she told them.

Jen and Peter followed Madam Malkin to the back of the store where they got to stand on stools while Madam Malkin and an assistant were measuring them. When Madam Malkin and the assistant was done measuring them they told them to put on robes that Madam Malkin and the assistant then pinned up in the correct lengths.

"There you are, all done," Madam Malkin said and gave Jen a package that contained her robes, cloak and hat.

Peter was done just some minutes later and they left the store.

((&))

Jen and Peter only had three stores left when they decided that it was time for lunch and walked back to the Leaky Cauldron.

When they were sitting and eating Jen decided to ask Peter something.

"Peter, when we were at the apothecary I heard a man say that it was too many muggleborns in the store for his liking," Jen said. "What is a muggleborn?"

"In the magical world there are different blood statuses," Peter said. "Firstly there is muggleborns. A muggleborn is a magical person with muggle parents. Then we have the halfbloods. A halfblood is a magical person with one muggle parent and one magical parent. Lastly we have the purebloods. A pureblood is a magical person with two magical parents. Some purebloods think that they are better than muggleborns because both their parents are wizards, but they aren´t, they just believe they are."

"It sounds ridiculous that they would think they are better just because who their parents are," Jen said.

"It is but it isn´t anything we can change," Peter said solemnly.

((&))

When they were done eating they went to the bookstore _Flourish and Blotts._ Jen loved the shop from the first time she walked into it. The shop had books from the floor to the ceiling and it was like walking in a dream for Jen.

Jen got the books that was on the list plus some extra. She got _Hogwarts: A History_ and _A History About the Dark Arts Rise and Fall_ and some books about magical creatures and some adventure books.

After they left the book store they walked to a pet shop. It was quiet dark inside the pet shop and it was full of small noises.

Jen went around the shop and looked at the different animals while Peter was talking to the shop assistant. Jen stopped at the back of the shop where she found a small long haired kitten whose fur looked like silver when it moved.

"I want this kitten," Jen said to the shop assistant who smiled and nodded.

"Of course, dear," the shop assistant said. "It´ll be 10 galleons."

Jen paid the 10 Galleons for the little kitten which she had named Silver because of its fur.

Jen now only needed a wand and then she had everything so she started to walk towards the wand shop but Peter stopped her.

"Is it okay if I go and buy a broomstick while you are getting your wand?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure," Jen said and they started to walk in separate direction.

Jen walked up to the narrow and shabby shop where over the door it stood in peeling gold letters _Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC._ A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as Jen stepped in through the door.

Jen looked around the shop and saw thousands of long narrow boxes that were piled nearly all the way to the ceiling and in one corner there were a spindly chair. The shop reminded Jen of a very serious library.

"Good day," someone suddenly said and Jen jumped at the unexpected sound.

Jen turned to her left and before her stood an old man, with big pale eyes and tufty grey hair. Jen immediately realised that this must be Mr Ollivander.

"And you are?" He asked Jen, fixating her with his big pale, lamp like eyes.

"Jennifer MacAvity," Jen said.

Mr Ollivander continued to stare at her with his pale eyes and it made Jen more and more uncomfortable until he finally looked away.

"Ah, Miss MacAvity, I remember your brother's wand," he said. "Oak, 11 inches, slightly springy with a core of dragon heartstring, if I remember right. A really good wand."

Mr Ollivander then took out a measuring tape and started measuring Jen.

"Which is your wand arm?" Mr Ollivander asked.

Jen assumed he meant to ask if she was left or right handed so she told him that it was her right.

"I remember every wand I have ever sold, Miss MacAvity," Mr Ollivander said. "Every wand is unique. Every wand has their own magical core and is made out of different kinds of wood. Here we use three types of powerful magical cores, unicorn hair, phoenix feather and dragon heartstring. It is the wand who chooses the wizard or in this case witch, Miss MacAvity."

While he talked he had released the measuring tape so that it was measuring by itself at all kind of bizarre places and Mr Ollivader had walked into one of the aisles between the rows of shelves. He came back when he stopped talking with some of the long thin boxes.

"It is enough," he told the measuring tape and then continued to explain about wands "Every wand can achieve grate magic together with its owner. Now try this"

He gave her one of the wands he had taken from the shelves.

"Cider, 10 and a half inches, dragon heartstring."

Jen took the wand but Mr Ollivander immediately ripped it from her hand.

"No, no, no that doesn´t work," he said and then put it back in its box again.

Mr Ollivander then took out a new wand from another box.

"10 and a half inches, willow and phoenix feather."

This wand wasn´t right either because he ripped the wand from her hand nearly immediately again and so it continued. Jen went through one wand after the other and she slowly started to lose hope of ever finding a wand that would be hers.

"Ebony wood with a phoenix feather core, 11 inches and Slightly Springy flexibility," Mr Ollivander said and gave her a new wand.

When Jen held the wand in her hand she felt warmth go through her body and it felt right.

"Yes, yes, good, very good!" Mr Olllivander said and clapped his hand.

Jen smiled and gave him back the wand and he put it back in its box before laying the box in a bag.

"Ebony wands are good in transfiguration and all kinds of combative magic. Ebony wand chooses those who will hold fast to their believes no matter what the external pressure and will not be lightly swayed from their purpose," Mr Ollivader said. "It will be seven Galleons please."

"Thank you, Mr Ollivander," Jen said as she handed over the money and walked out of the shop.

She went to the shop where she had seen the broomstick earlier that day and found Peter there, holding a new broomstick. They now had everything they needed and started to walk back to the Leaky Cauldron; they stopped at _Florean Fortescue´s Ice Cream Parlour_ and bought ice cream. Jen got a strawberry and melon and Peter got a blueberry and apple.

When they had finished eating their ice creams they went through the Leaky Cauldron out into the muggle world. They took the bus home, with a lot of people staring at their many strangely shaped packages. When they came home they put all their things in their rooms.

That night, when Jen lay in bed with Silver sleeping at the pillow next to her head, she thought about the day she had just had and thought that it had been one of the best days in her life.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer** **: I don´t own anything all rights go to J.K. Rowling**

 **Chapter 4: The Journey from Platform 9 ¾**

 **AN: I´m back. I´m sorry that I´ve been gone so long but I´ve got a lot of homework and we were visiting relatives over Christmas and New Year.**

 **I hope you all have had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!**

The one and a half month leading up to September 1 was quiet calm for Jen, the only thing that had actually changed was that Jen and her parent's relationship had become a bit frostier.

Jen had started to read through her set books and the extra books she had gotten. It was in _A History About the Dark Arts Rise and Fall_ Jen first read about Voldemort, she also read about Harry Potter and how he defeated Voldemort.

Jen thought it was ridiculous that wizards called Voldemort You-Know-Who instead of his real name. Jen had asked her brother why they called him You-Know-Who instead of Voldemort and he told her it was because they were afraid.

Jen also got to know her little kitten Sliver more. Silver liked sleeping beside Jen on her pillow and when Jen read Silver liked to curl up in her lap.

The closer September 1 it got the more nervous and excited Jen got. She tried to memorise what stood in her set books so she would be prepared. Peter just smiled at her every time he found her reading one of her set books.

"I think Transfiguration and Potions looks most interesting," Jen told Peter about a week before September 1.

"Both are interesting subjects," Peter said. "But the Potion teacher, Professor Snape, is really awful. He only likes the Slytherins and he criticise everyone."

Jen got really disappointed by this because she had been really excited about Potions and didn't want the subject to be ruined just because of the teacher. They sat in silence for some minutes both reading. They were sitting in Peter's blue and bronze Ravenclaw room and Jen was reading _Hogwarts: A History_ when she suddenly thought of something that really worried her.

"Peter?" Jen said.

"Mmhmm," Peter said and turned page in his book.

"What if I get sorted in a different house than you?" Jen said and Peter looked up from his book. "What if I´m not sorted into Ravenclaw?"

"Then you are in another house," he said.

"Yeah, but you won´t hate me if I´m in another house, right?"

"Jen, I could never hate you," Peter said. "I would be equally proud whichever house you end up in."

"Even if I end up in Slytherin?" Jen asked, she had read about Slytherins bad reputation in more than one of her books and heard Peter talk about them.

"Yeah, I would be proud even if you ended up in Slytherin," Peter said. "But I´m quite sure you won´t end up in Slytherin, you are too nice."

Jen laughed and hugged her brother and he hugged her back tightly.

((&))

The day before Jen would go to Hogwarts she packed her trunk and made sure she hadn´t forgotten anything before she decided she would cook a goodbye dinner to the whole family.

So while Mr and Mrs MacAvity were at work Jen made dinner.

The dinner was actually quite pleasant; Jen talked with her parents and siblings and had fun.

"How are Jen and I getting to King´s Cross Station tomorrow?" Peter asked when they had finished the dessert.

"You will have to take the bus," Mrs MacAvity said. "We have just gotten a really big case."

A thing Jen really hated about her parents was that they always were working, if they got a case they worked from early morning to late evening. All three siblings had, because of this, quiet early learnt how to take care of themselves so they didn´t have to be dependent on their parents.

"Okay," Peter said.

When the dinner was done Jen decided to say goodbye to her parents because she knew they would be gone before she woke up the next morning.

"Goodbye mother and father," Jen said and hugged them both.

"You are coming home for Christmas, right?" her father asked.

"Yeah, I will come home for Christmas," Jen said. "But, father, isn´t we going to Great Aunt Clarice in America over Christmas?"

"Clarice went on a cruise with some friends," Mr MacAvity said. "So it will only be us five this year."

When Jen had said goodbye to her parents she went up to her room and checked so she had packed everything and then went to bed.

((&))

Jen woke up really early the next morning, when she looked at the alarm clock at her bedside table it showed six thirty. Jen knew her parents had left for work about half an hour ago. Jen tried to go back to sleep but she was so nervous and excited that she couldn´t.

Jen waited half an hour before she went down to the kitchen and started to make breakfast for her and her siblings, Peter and Olivia came down to the kitchen about half an hour later.

They ate breakfast in silence and when Jen had finished hers she went up to her room. She checked her trunk one last time and then put Silver in a woven basket before she took her trunk down to the first floor. She then went up and fetched Silvers basket and Popcorns cage. Peter came down into the hallway after her with his trunk and broomstick.

Olivia was standing in the doorway to the living room and Jen realised it was time to say goodbye to her little sister.

"Goodbye Olivia," Jen said and hugged her little sister tightly while she tried, and failed, to not cry.

"Goodbye Jen," Olivia said and then she turned and hugged Peter. "Goodbye Peter."

Olivia sniffed and dried some tears with her sleeve.

"You have to write me," she said. "Both of you and when you come home for Christmas you have to tell me everything that has happened."

"We promise," both Jen and Peter said at the same time.

Then they took their trunks and pets and broomstick went out of the house and started to make their way to the bus stop while Olivia was waving after them from the doorway of their house.

The bus ride to King´s Cross Station was short but a bit uncomfortable with all the strange glances people gave them because of Popcorn, Silver and Peter´s broomstick. Jen was so nervous that she couldn´t sit still and kept change seating position.

"If you are nervous you can always sit with me on the train," Peter said. "Just keep in mind that I will have to go to the Prefects meeting during the ride."

"I would want to sit with you," Jen said quietly but her nerves had calmed down a bit.

They came to King´s Cross Station at ten o´clock so they had an hour before the Hogwarts Express left. Jen dumped her trunk on a trolley and then put Silver´s basket on top of the trunk, Peter had done the same and had also put his broomstick on the trolley.

Jen and Peter started to go through the station; they got some strange glances from people who looked at Popcorn. They walked towards the barrier between platforms nine and ten.

When Jen and Peter came to the entrance to platform 9 ¾ Jen saw a little family standing there looking confused. It was a mother, a father and a daughter who had very bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth.

"Are you certain that we are supposed to go through the wall to get to platform 9 ¾?" the mother asked the girl.

"Yes, I´m certain, mum," the bushy haired girl said but she looked very nervous and uncertain. "The witch that informed me that I was a witch said that I should run through the wall and I read it in one of my books too."

Jen took a careful step towards the little family.

"Excuse me, but are you going to Hogwarts?" Jen asked the girl.

All three people in the family lifted their heads and looked at Jen and Peter.

"Yes, I´m starting my first year at Hogwarts," the girl said. "Are you also going to Hogwarts?"

"Yeah, I´m also starting my first year and my brother is starting his fifth," Jen said.

"Then you know how to get through the portal!" the bushy haired girl said. "We can do it together if you want? My parents can come after with your brother."

"Okay," Jen said. "The only thing we need to do is running through the wall between platforms 9 and 10."

"My name is Hermione Granger," the girl said and stretched out her hand so Jen could shake it.

"Jennifer MacAvity," Jen said and shook Hermione's hand. "But everyone calls me Jen."

"And my name is Peter MacAvity," Peter said and shook Hermione's and Mr and Mrs Granger´s hands.

When everyone had shook hands Jen and Hermione took their trolleys and stood side by side facing the wall between platforms nine and ten. Then they started to walk towards it and Jen could feel how she got more nervous and started to walk faster, when they were just one meter from the wall Jen closed her eyes.

Jen and Hermione continued walking in about ten meters before they stopped. When Jen opened her eyes she saw a scarlet steam engine next to a pact platform, she had first seen that train and platform five years ago when she had followed her parents here to say goodbye to Peter when he had went to his first year.

When Jen now looked at the scarlet train she saw it differently than she had done five years ago. Then she had seen it as the train that would take her brother away to a new exciting world and leaving her behind but now it would be her that the train would take away to that new exciting world.

Jen turned around and saw her brother and Mr and Mrs Granger walking out from under a wrought-iron archway with the words _Platform 9 ¾_ on it.

"Would you like to sit with me on the train?" Jen heard Hermione ask.

Jen threw a quick glance at Hermione before turning to Peter and looking uncertainly at him. Peter only nodded and smiled to show that it was okay that Jen sat with Hermione at the train.

"I would like that," Jen said to Hermione.

Hermione, Jen, Peter and Hermione's parents started to walk down the train in search for an empty compartment. Peter was all the time calling out greetings to his friends while they walked down the train. They finally found an empty compartment near the end of the train.

Jen put Silver´s basket inside before Peter and Mr Granger helped the girls with their trunks. When the trunks were loaded in the compartment Hermione turned to say goodbye to her parents and Jen turned to talk to Peter.

"Do you want me to sit in your compartment or is it okay if I sit with my friends?" Peter asked.

Jen looked over at Hermione who was crying while she hugged her parents.

"I think it´s okay if you sit with your friends," Jen said. "But you got to promise that you´ll at least come by one time during the ride."

"I promise I will come by," Peter said and Jen hugged him.

When Jen released Peter he took his trolley and started to walk back up the train in search of his friends. Jen looked after him before jumping into her and Hermione´s compartment and waited for Hermione to finish saying goodbye to her parents.

Hermione walked into the compartment, with tears still streaming down her cheeks, when it was about five minutes before the train would leave. She took out a handkerchief and started rubbing her eyes with it.

When the train stated to leave the platform Hermione leant out through the window and waved goodbye to her parents as long as she could see them. When Hermione no longer could see her parents she leant back into the compartment and closed the window.

The two girls stared awkwardly at each other while the houses of London flew by outside the window.

"So are the whole of your family wizards and witches?" Hermione finally asked. "It would be fantastic to grow up in a family with witches and wizards. I´m the only person in my family with magical powers. I´m also an only child so it would be really cool to have a wizard brother."

Hermione said all this very fast and Jen was impressed of how someone could talk so fast.

"Both my parents are Muggles," Jen said and smiled at Hermione. "Me and Peter are the only ones in my family with magical powers but our little sister might also have magical powers but we don´t know that until she gets her Hogwarts letter."

"What do your parents work with?" Hermione said as fast as before. "Mine are dentists' and they are really strict when it comes to tooth hygiene. I've actually never had sweets."

"My parents are lawyers," Jen said. "They work a lot and they hate everything that has to do with magic."

"Oh, I´m so sorry," Hermione said.

Jen didn´t exactly know why she told Hermione about that her parent´s dislike of magic but she was actually glad she had done it. They both sat some time in silence, caught in their own thoughts. Jen let Silver out of her basket and the kitten curled up in her lap.

"You have a really cute kitten," Hermione said and ended the silence. "I would really like to have a pet but my parents said I have to wait. They don´t think I'm old enough for a pet."

"Yeah, she is cute," Jen said and petted Silver. "I bought her when I was in Diagon Alley. My parent's didn´t want me to have a pet but Peter and I bought her anyway, mother and father wasn´t that happy when we came home with her. Have you read any of the set books?"

"Oh, yes," Hermione said excitedly. "I have learned all our set books by heart and I have also read some extra book for background information. I thought that would be good so that I would come prepared when I came to Hogwarts. Have you also read the set books? And have you gotten some extra books?"

"I have read our set books but I can´t say that I have memorised them," Jen said. "But I have also gotten some extra book. Two about history and then some books about magical creatures and then some adventure books."

"So you are looking forward to the Magical Creatures class, then?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, but Peter said that we won't take that class until third year," Jen said.

"You said your brother was starting his fifth year, right?" Hermione asked and Jen nodded. "Which house is he in? I have read a bit about houses and I think Gryffindor sounds by far the best, I mean, Dumbledore was in that house when he was at Hogwarts, but I don´t think Ravenclaw sounds too bad either."

"Well my brother is in Ravenclaw," Jen said. "I would, of course, prefer to get into Ravenclaw but Peter says he will be proud of me whichever house I get sorted into so it doesn´t really matter which house I get into, as long as it isn´t Slytherin. Peter says nearly all Slytherins are evil."

"From what I´ve read about the houses and about Slytherin I wouldn't want to be in that house either," Hermione said. "But I don´t think that all of the people in Slytherin are evil, either. I´m sure that there are some good people there."

Just then the compartment door slid open and Peter looked into the compartment. He was already dressed in his Hogwarts robes and his Prefects badge was gleaming at his chest.

"Jen I´ve just been up in the Prefects compartment," he said. "I will do my round on the train and then I will be in the middle of the train with my friends if you are wondering where I am."

"Okay," Jen said.

"And you should change to your Hogwarts robes," Peter said before leaving the compartment.

Hermione was looking after Peter before turning to Jen.

"You never told me your brother was a Prefect," she said.

"Oh, I forgot," Jen said.

They then decided that they should change into their Hogwarts robes. When they had changed they heard a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling dimpled woman opened the compartment door.

"Anything off the trolley, dears?" the woman asked.

Jen was really eager to try some of the wizard sweets her brother had told her about. Hermione wasn´t nearly as excited as Jen but Jen convinced her to at least try something.

Jen bought some Chocolate Frogs, a bag of Bertie Bott´s Every-Flavour Beans and some Pumpkin Pasties. Hermione also bought some Pumpkin Pasties and some Liquorice Wands.

"My parents are going to be so disappointed in me," Hermione said as she took a bite of a Pumpkin Pasty.

Jen didn´t say anything in response and ate a Chocolate Frog instead. They had long since left London behind them and now it was neat green fields flashing by outside the window and they soon went over in woods, twisting rivers and dark green hills.

Jen and Hermione continued to talk and Jen told Hermione about her parents and why they didn´t like magic and about Tracy Danvers and her gang and how they were bullying her in school. Hermione told Jen that she also was bullied in school and how she didn´t really had any friends.

Jen thought that it was really nice talking to Hermione and she really hoped that they could continue to be friends.

Suddenly the compartment door opened and a plump round-faced boy stood in the doorway.

"Sorry," he sniffed. "But have you seen a toad at all?"

"No, we haven´t," Hermione said and Jen shook her head. "But we can help you search if you want?"

"Yes, that would be really nice," the boy said and tried to dry his tears with his shirt sleeve. "My name is Neville Longbottom, by the way."

"Hermione Granger."

"Jennifer MacAvity but I prefer to be called Jen."

Jen put Silver back in her basket before all three of them walked out in the corridor. Hermione went first and asked in the next compartment but they hadn´t seen the toad either. Jen then took the next compartment.

When Jen opened the door to the compartment six heads turned to her. It was three girls and three boys in the compartment and two of the boys looked identical with flaming red hair and freckles.

"Excuse me, but have you seen a toad?" Jen asked.

"A toad, Forge, have we seen it?" one of the twins said.

"I don´t know, Gred, have we?" said the other twin.

Jen looked between the two grinning boys and immediately realised that they were making fun of her.

"Oh, stop making the girl uncomfortable, you two," a dark skinned girl said. "No, we have unfortunately not seen a toad, have you lost yours?"

"No, I haven´t lost a toad but my friend has," Jen said and gestured to Neville behind her in the corridor.

"Okay, I hope you find it," the dark skinned girl said and smiled.

Jen smiled back before she closed the compartment door and she, Hermione and Neville continued to ask around for Neville´s toad.

About five compartments later Hermione opened the door to a compartment with only two people in. The inhabitants of the compartment were two boys that looked like they were starting their first year at Hogwarts. One was small and skinny with black, unruly hair and round glasses that were held together with Sellotape and the other boy was tall, thin, gangly and had flaming red hair and a lot of freckles, he reminded Jen of the twins from some compartments ago and Jen realised they must be related. The boy with red hair also had a big dirt stain on his long nose, had a sleeping rat in his lap and he was holding his wand in the air as if he was about to do magic.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville´s lost one," Hermione said.

"We´ve already told him we haven't seen it," said the red haired boy but neither Jen nor Hermione was listening because both had realised that he was about to do some kind of magic and both of them was really excited about the prospect to see some magic.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let´s see it then," Hermione said and sat down.

Jen followed Hermione into the compartment and sat down next to her while she smiled at the red haired boy who looked rather taken aback.

"Er-all right."

He cleared his throat.

" _Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,_

 _Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."_

The boy waved his wand, but nothing happen. The spell was obviously meant to change colour of the rat in the boys lap but the rat stayed grey.

Jen was certain that it was a fake spell because all the spells she had read or heard her brother talk about had been completely different. She also knew that to change colour of an object was difficult transfiguration magic that no one that hadn´t even started their first year at Hogwarts would be able to do.

"Are you sure that´s a real spell?" Hermione said. "Well, it´s not very good, is it? I´ve tried a few simple spells just for practice and it´s all worked for me. Nobody in my family´s magic at all, it all was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it´s the very best school of witchcraft there is, I´ve heard-I´ve learnt all our set books off by heart, of course, I just hope t will be enough-I´m Hermione Granger, by the way, and this is Jennifer MacAvity but she prefers to be called Jen, who are you?"

Hermione said this a lot faster than when she spoke to Jen and Jen guessed that she spoke so fast because she was nervous.

The two boys looked at each other before answering.

"I´m Ron Weasley," the red haired boy said.

"Harry Potter," said the black haired, bespectacled boy.

Jen stared speechless at the black haired boy and her eyes were instantly drawn to his forehead where nearly hidden by his fringe she could see the lightning bolt shaped scar. This was Harry Potter the boy who had defeated Lord Voldemort.

"Are you really?" Hermione said. "I know all about you, of course-I got a few extra books, Jen did too, for background reading, and you´re in _Modern Magical History_ and _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_ and _Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century_."

"Am I?" Harry said, looking a bit dazed.

"Goodness, didn´t you know, I´d have found out everything I could if it was me," Hermione said and Jen nodded in agreement. "Do either of you know what house you´ll be in? I´ve been asking around and I hope I´m in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best, I hear Dumbledore himself was one, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad... Anyway, we´d better go and look for Neville´s toad. You two better change, you know, I expect we´ll be there soon."

Hermione stood up and left with Neville in tow. Jen was about to follow them when she stopped in the doorway.

"It was really nice meeting you both," Jen said. "I hope you´ll get that spell to work it would be nice to see some magic, my brother is in Ravenclaw but he isn´t allowed to do magic at home. I´m really excited to see which house I end up in, I´m hoping for Ravenclaw but Gryffindor would be fine too. I hope I´ll see you later."

Jen smiled at both boys before leaving the compartment and hurrying after Hermione.

When Jen reached Hermione and Neville they were already half way up the train and Neville had his head stuck into a compartment and seemed to be asking about his toad.

"It wasn´t there either," he said solemnly when he had closed the compartment door.

"Come on, Neville, we will find it," Jen said. "We can ask my brother he´s a Prefect and he´ll certainly be able to help. He should be in one of these compartments."

It didn´t take long before they found Peter sitting in one compartment with his friends. When Jen opened the compartment door all heads in the compartment turned to her.

"Jen!" Peter said and gave her a big smile before turning to his friends. "Hey, guys, this is my little sister so you got to be nice to her."

"Sure, Pete," one of the guys in the compartment said. "You are right, Pete, you´re really looking similar."

The others in the compartment agreed and Jen felt her face go red from all the attention she got.

"Did you want anything Jen?" Peter asked.

"Yes, Neville here has lost his toad and I´m helping him find it and I thought that you maybe could help us," Jen said.

"Of course I can," Peter said. "I´m going to see what I can do. You can go back to your compartments and we can come to you if we find the toad."

"Okay, thanks Peter," Jen said.

"No worries," Peter said. "And Jen, when the train stops I´ll find you and make sure so you don´t get lost."

"Okay," Jen said before stepping out of the compartment. "See you later."

When Jen had closed the compartment door she turned to Neville and Hermione.

"Shall we go back to the compartments?" Jen said.

"Yes, I´m going back to mine now," Neville said, he still looked sad but he seemed to be a little better to moods.

"I would like to go up front and ask the driver if we are there soon," Hermione said.

"Yeah, I would like to know that too," Jen said. "I guess we will see you later Neville"

"Yeah, I really hope you find your toad," Hermione said.

"Thanks for helping me look for it," Neville said. "It was really nice."

"It was nothing," Jen said.

"Yeah," Hermione said. "And it´ll probably turn up soon."

They went in separate directions and Hermione and Jen started to walk up the train. It wasn´t long before they had come to the front of the train and they asked the driver how far it was until they were there and he said that they were nearly there.

They then started to walk back to their own compartment. When they nearly were back at their compartment they heard a commotion and howling coming from Harry and Ron´s compartment. They instantly started to run towards the compartment but when they were nearly there they were pushed out of the way by two big burly boys and one smaller with blonde hair.

"Hey, that was rude!" Jen called after them but they ignored her.

Jen decided to ignore it and followed Hermione into the compartment. When Jen came into the compartment she saw Ron picking up his rat by its tale and all the candy, that earlier had been lying in an empty seat, was now lying all over the floor.

"What happened?" Jen said but the boys ignored both her and Hermione.

"I think he´s been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at the rat. "No-I don´t believe it-he´s gone back to sleep."

The rat was indeed sleeping but Jen didn´t understand what was so significant with that.

"You´ve met Malfoy before?" Ron asked Harry.

Jen assumed Malfoy was one of the boys that had pushed past her and Hermione in the corridor.

Harry told Ron about his meeting with Malfoy in Diagon Alley.

"I´ve heard of his family," Ron said darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they´d been bewitched. My dad doesn´t believe it. He says Malfoy´s father didn´t need an excuse to go over to the Dark side." He turned to Jen and Hermione. "Can I help you with something?"

"You´d better hurry up and put your robes on, we´ve just been up front to ask the driver and he says we´re nearly there. You haven´t been fighting, have you? You´ll be in trouble before we even get there!" Hermione said.

"Scabbers has been fighting, not us," Ron said holding out his rat so they could see, scowling at them. "Would you mind leaving while we change?"

"Well, we only came in here because we heard a commotion and thought that we could help," Jen said. "And if I were you I would be a bit nicer to people that are trying to help you."

Jen turned and walked out of the compartment with Hermione behind her. But just before Hermione closed the door behind her she turned to Ron again.

"And you´ve got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?" Hermione said and closed the door.

Jen and Hermione walked back to their own compartment where they sat down and turned to each other.

"Who does he think he is?" Hermione said. "They have been fighting before we even get to Hogwarts and he is blaming his rat!"

"I know," Jen said. "And he´s so rude it´s a miracle that anyone want to sit in the same compartment as him."

Just then a voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes´ time. Please leave your luggage on the train; it will be taken to the school separately."

Jen immediately felt the anger and frustration she earlier felt over Harry and Ron turn into nervousness. Jen got more and more nervous as she and Hermione put their candy into their trunks and then joined the crowed thronging the corridor.

The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way towards the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. When they got out of the train Jen could feel the cold night air hit her and she started shivering.

Then Jen saw a lamp bobbing over the heads of the other students and heard a voice calling: "Firs´-years over here! Firs´-years! "

Jen and Hermione started to fight their way towards the voice who was calling for the first years. Jen had a hard time fighting her way through the crowd thanks to her small stature and wouldn´t have made it to the caller if her brother hadn´t found her and guided her and Hermione through the crowd.

When they had gotten out of the crowd Jen could for the first time see who it was that was calling for the first years. When Jen saw who it was that was calling she felt her eyes go wide and her mouth open. It was a giant of a man with a wild mane of black hair and a big wild beard; you could barely see anything of the face except the eyes, which were black but seemed nice.

"Hey, Hagrid," Peter said.

"Hey, Peter," the giant answered before continuing calling after the first years.

"This is Hagrid," Peter said to Jen. "He´ll take you to the castle. I have to go now but I´ll see you later and if I don´t see you tonight I´ll see you tomorrow at breakfast."

"Okay," Jen said and hugged her brother before he hurried away into the crowd.

"Firs´-years! Firs´-years!" Hagrid called. "C´mon, follow me-any more firs´-years? Mind yer step, now! Firs´-years follow me!"

Slipping and stumbling, Jen and Hermione together with the other first years followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was very dark on either side of them but Jen could discern the darker shapes of trees there. It was very quiet so when Jen suddenly heard someone making a sound behind her she jumped before she realised that it was only Neville who sniffed. Jen realised that he probably still hadn´t found his toad.

"Yeh´ll get yer firs´ sight o´ Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus´ round the bend here."

"Oooooh!" Jen said together with nearly all the other first years.

The narrow path had opened on to the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.

Jen thought that it was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen in her life.

"No more´n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a small fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore.

Jen and Hermione followed Harry and Ron into one boat. Jen got into the boat nearly without taking her eyes from the castle, she felt like she never wanted to take her eyes of the castle.

"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself, "Right then- FORWARD!"

And the fleet of little boats obediently moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was smooth as glass. Nobody was speaking and Jen continued to look up at the castle. It was towering over them and became steadily bigger as the boats came closer to the cliff on which the castle stood.

"Heads down!" Hagrid yelled as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy which hid a wide opening in the cliff face. Jen could no longer see the castle because they were in a long dark tunnel that seemed to go right under the castle. They soon reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out on to the rocks and pebbles.

"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.

"Trevor!" Neville cried bliss fully, holding out his hands.

"We told you he would come back," Jen told Neville quietly and smiled at him.

They started to climb up a passageway following Hagrids lamp. Finally they came out onto the smooth, damp grass in the shadow of the castle.

They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around a huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" Hagrid said and raised one of his gigantic fists and knocked three times on the castle door.

 **AN: So this was chapter 4. I´ve started with chapter five and I hope that I can get some time and write before school starts next week.**

 **Hope you enjoyed the chapter**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer** **: I don´t own anything all rights go to J.K. Rowling**

 **Chapter 5: The Sorting Hat**

 **AN: I had a lot of time to write in the last few days and so I have finished this chapter and the next and started chapter 7. I won´t have so much time to write because school starts again tomorrow.**

 **I hope you will enjoy the chapter!**

The door swung open immediately. A tall witch with black hair and wearing emerald-green robes stood there. She had a slightly tight and stern face that made Jen promise herself to never make her angry.

"The firs´ years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid said.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

The witch pulled the door open wider so they all could come through. The Entrance Hall was so big it could have fitted Jen´s whole house in it. On the walls, made out of stone, were flaming torches in holders and the ceiling was so high you couldn´t see it. There was a magnificent marble staircase that led upwards to the upper floors.

They followed Professor McGonagall across the hall, past the drone of hundreds of voices that came from a door to their left- it must be there the rest of the school are, Jen thought- and then into a small, empty chamber next to the hall. They crowded in there, stood a little closer to each other than they would otherwise done and peered around nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall said. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

Professor McGonagall´s eyes swivelled between Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron´s smudged nose. Jen nervously dusted her robes off.

"I shall return when we are ready for you," Professor McGonagall said. "Please wait quietly."

She left the chamber. Jen stared nervously after her before looking down at her feet. What was the sorting? Now when Jen thought about it she realised that she had never asked her brother how he got sorted into Ravenclaw.

"How do we get sorted into the houses?" Hermione whispered to Jen. "It didn´t stand in any of my books."

"I have no idea," Jen said. "But I think Peter mentioned something about a test once."

Hermione looked really worried and immediately started to whisper every spell she had learnt from her books. Jen did the same but quiet in her head so she wouldn´t disturb anyone alse.

Jen stared at the door, where she knew Professor McGonagall would come through any minute now, while she nervously went through all the things she had learnt from reading the books she had bought in Diagon Alley and what Peter had told her. She couldn´t believe that they would make a test in spells and magic before they had even entered the school, before they had learnt any magic, so what in all the world could the sorting be?

She was just repeating all the spells she could about transfiguration when someone behind her screamed. Jen turned around and gasped. About twenty pearly-white and slightly transparent ghosts had just streamed through the back wall of the chamber. Jen stared at them with big round eyes. Her brother had told her about the ghosts but she had never believed him, she had thought he was joking because ghost's didn´t exist. Jen had obviously been wrong because now there were ghosts right in front of her; they even seemed to be arguing.

"Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance-" a ghost that looked like a little fat monk said.

"My dear Friar, haven´t we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he´s not really even a ghost – I say, what are you all doing here?" a ghost wearing a ruff and tights said.

Nobody answered him.

"New students!" the Fat Friar said, smiling around at them. "About to be sorted, I suppose?"

Jen nodded mutely together with a few other people.

"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" the Friar said. "My old house, you know."

"Move along now," a sharp voice said. "The Sorting Ceremony´s about to start."

Jen turned towards the door and saw that Professor McGonagall had come back. The ghosts floated away through the opposite wall from which they had arrived.

"Now form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first-years, "and follow me."

Jen felt a lump of nervousness form in her stomach as she stumbling got into line behind Ron with Hermione behind her. They all walked out of the chamber, across the Entrance Hall, through a pair of double doors and into the Great Hall.

The Great Hall was one of the most amazing things Jen had ever seen, Peter had told her about it but what she now saw was far more amazing than he had ever made it seem.

The Hall was lit by a thousand candles floating in the air above the four long tables, where the rest of the students sat, that was set whit glittering golden plates and goblets.

At the end of the Hall was another table where the teachers were sitting, Jen saw a lot of different teachers sitting there but the one who stood out the most was a very old man with silver coloured hair and beard that were so long that he could put them in his belt. His blue eyes were light and clear and sparkled happily behind the half moon-shaped glasses that rested on a crooked nose. Jen realised that this must be Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster.

It was up to the teachers table that Professor McGonagall was now leading the first-years. They stopped so they were standing in a line facing the students with their backs to the teachers.

Jen got uncomfortable with all the hundreds of faces that were staring at her so, to avoid the stares; she looked up to the ceiling and gasped. The ceiling didn´t seem to exist, it looked like the Great Hall opened up directly to the velvet black starry sky.

"It´s bewitched to look like the sky outside, I read it in _Hogwarts: A History_ ," Hermione told Jen when she saw her chocked expression as she looking at the sky. "Haven´t you read it?"

"I haven´t come to that chapter yet," Jen said. "And Peter haven´t said anything about it either."

Jen looked down again just in time to see Professor McGonagall placing a four-legged stool in front of the first-years. On top of the stool she put a patched, frayed and extremely dirty pointed wizard´s hat.

Maybe the hat has something to do with the test? Jen thought as she stared at it. Suddenly the hat twitched and a rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth – and the hat began to sing:

 _Oh, you may not think I´m pretty,_

 _But don´t judge on what you see,_

 _I´ll eat myself if you can find,_

 _A smarter hat than me._

 _You can keep your bowlers black,_

 _Your top hats sleek and tall,_

 _For I´m the Hogwarts Sorting Hat_

 _And I ca cap them all._

 _There's nothing hidden in your head_

 _The Sorting Hat can´t see,_

 _So try me on and I will tell you_

 _Where you ought to be._

 _You might belong in Gryffindor,_

 _Where dwell the brave at heart,_

 _Their daring, nerv and chivalry_

 _Set Gryffindors apart,_

 _You might belong in Hufflepuff,_

 _Where they are just and loyal,_

 _Those patient Hufflepuffs are true_

 _And unafraid of toil,_

 _Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,_

 _If you´ve a ready mind,_

 _Where those of wit and learning,_

 _Will always find their kind,_

 _Or perhaps in Slytherin_

 _You´ll make your real friends,_

 _Those cunning folk use any means_

 _To achive their ends._

 _So put me on! Don´t be afraid!_

 _And don´t get in a flap!_

 _You´re in safe hands (though I have none)_

 _For I´m a Thinking Cap!_

Jen clapped her hands whit the rest of the Hall when the hat had finished it´s song and bowed to each of the four tables. She felt relief over that she only had to try on a hat to be placed in a house and not trying to do some kind of spell. Jen only wished that she hadn´t had to do it in front of the whole school.

"So we´ve just got to try on a hat! I´ll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll," Jen heard Ron say and she felt really glad that the person Ron talked about hadn´t been right.

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbot, Hannah!"

A pink-faced girl with blond pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment´s pause-

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat shouted.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah ran over and sat down at the Hufflepuff table. Jen saw The Fat Friar wave happily at Hannah.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat shouted again and Susan ran off to sit with Hannah at the Hufflepuff table while the rest of the house cheered and clapped.

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

The table second from the left clapped this time and Jen saw that her brother was one of the several Ravenclaws that stood up to shake hands with Terry. It was the first time Jen saw her brother since the train and she felt a bit less nervous when she saw him.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Brown, Lavender!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The table on the far left exploded in applause and cheers as Lavender sat down at the Gryffindor table. Jen could see the red haired twins from the train catcalling.

"Bulstrode, Millicennt!" became the first Slytherin. When Jen looked over at the unpleasant faces of the students at the Slytherin table she could feel shills go up her spine and she wished more than ever that she wouldn't end up in Slytherin.

For each name that was called up Jen became more and more nervous, it helped a little bit to know that her brother was in the hall with her but she was still really nervous.

"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Jen noticed that the hat took different amount of time each time to decide to which house the student should go, some took longer time and other shorter. Jen really hoped that her sorting would go fast.

It was a few more names after Justin before:

"Granger, Hermione!"

Hermione almost ran up to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head. Jen looked nervously on as her friend sat on the stool and waited to be sorted.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat finally shouted.

Ron groaned beside her and Jen jammed her elbow in his side and glared at him.

More names was called up and for each of them Jen got more and more nervous. Soon she couldn´t stand still and started to shuffle from foot to foot while she was looking straight ahead at one of the floating candles.

"Longbottom, Neville!" Professor McGonagall called and Jen focused back on the sorting and realised that it was nearly her turn.

Neville fell over on the way to the stool and the hat took a long time do decide where Neville belonged.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat finally shouted.

"MacAvity, Jennifer!" Professor McGonagall called.

Jen walked up to the stool but stopped when she saw that the hat wasn´t there. Jen realised that Neville had ran away to the Gryffindor table still wearing the hat. He had to walk back and give Jen the hat while the whole Hall laughed at him, Jen didn´t laugh and smiled encouragingly at him instead even though her own face had become red with embarrassment.

When Jen had gotten the hat she sat down on the stool and put the hat on her head. The last thing Jen saw before the hat fell down over her eyes was the laughing faces of the students and her brother giving her a big smile and a wave.

"Ah, a quiet interesting mind we have here," Jen nearly jumped off the stool when she heard a thin voice in her ear. "This will be hard, I think. There is a little cunning here but not enough to put you in Slytherin, which you are happy to hear I see."

Jen felt immense relief over that the hat wouldn´t put her in Slytherin.

"Very happy, indeed," the hat added. "This is a tricky one, hmm. There is wit and knowledge here so you would fit very well in Ravenclaw but you are also loyal and kind so you would fit in to Hufflepuff too. Then we also have a great deal of courage that would make you a perfect Gryffindor. Hmm... very tricky, indeed. You would do well in any of those three houses, especially Ravenclaw and Gryffindor."

The hat continued to talk back and forth with itself while Jen sat on the stool and waited for it to decide which house she should be in. The minutes continued to tick by as the hat contemplated and the rest of the students in the Hall started to whisper higher and higher.

"She´s a Hatstall!" someone suddenly shouted but Jen had no idea what that meant.

The hat continued to mutter and Jen started to worry that the hat would never choose a house for her and eventually ask her to go home. Jen was terrified of the thought but decided that she wouldn´t let it bother her and she straitened her back a little and stared determined at the inside of the hat.

"Aha, now I know," the hat said a bit louder than its previous mutter and Jen jumped again. "It better be... GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat called the last word out so that the whole of the Great Hall could hear. With a wide smile Jen took the hat off and walked a bit wobbly over to the cheering Gryffindor table where she got to shake hands with some of the Gryffindors before she sat down beside Hermione, who gave her a tight hug.

After the immense relief that she had been sorted at all had ebbed out Jen felt a bit disappointed that she hadn´t been sorted into Ravenclaw but when she looked over to the Ravenclaw table she saw her brother giving her a big smile and a thumbs-up and she started to feel a bit better.

"Malfoy, Draco!" was the next name Jen had focus enough to hear.

The white blond boy that had pushed past Hermione and her on the train walked up to the stool. The hat had barely touched his head before it cried "SLYTHERIN!"

A few more names were called before:

"Potter, Harry!"

The Great Hall erupted in whispers as Harry made the way up to the stool; he put the hat on his head and sat on the stool.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat called after around two minutes.

Harry stumbled his way to the Gryffindor table under deafening applause and cheers.

"We´ve got Potter! We´ve got Potter!" Jen herd the red-haired twins from the train chant and decided that they must be jokesters.

More names were called after Harry and soon it wasn´t many first-years left to be sorted. Ron was second to last to be called and by that time his face had turned to a pale green shade.

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted and Ron ran off to the Gryffindor table while the table sheered and clapped.

"Well done, Ron, excellent," a red haired boy with a prefects badge said as Ron sat down beside Harry.

It was only "Zabini, Blaise!" left and he was placed in Slytherin. When Zabini had been sorted Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away before sitting down at the teachers table.

Now when the Sorting was over and Jen wasn´t as nervous anymore she could feel how hungry she was. Jen had last eaten the sweets on the train and that felt like ages ago.

Jen looked up at the teachers table and saw that Albus Dumbledore had stood up and was now beaming at the students, whit his arms open wide in welcome to them all.

"Welcome!" he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

"Thank you!"

Jen stared at Dumbledore while she clapped with the rest of the school as he sat down. He really is as mad as Peter said, Jen thought.

"Is he - a bit mad?" Jen heard Harry ask the red-headed boy that had greeted Ron earlier and were now sitting on the other side of the table from Jen.

"Mad?" the red-head said airily. "He´s a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"

Jen´s moth fell open and her eyes went wide as she looked around at the earlier empty dishes that were now piled high with food. Jen had never seen so much food in one place and all the food seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. She immediately started to load her plate whit all the things that she knew she liked and a few thing that she thought looked good.

As she started to eat one of the red-haired twins from the train leaned towards her.

"So, how does it feel to be a Hatstall?" he asked.

"I don´t know what a Hatstall is," Jen said.

"It's someone whose sorting took more than five minutes," the red-head with the prefects badge said. "It´s really unusual that someone becomes a Hatstall."

"Er... Okay, I guess" she said as answer to the twin's question.

"Okay, my name is George Weasley and my twin over there is Fred and the pompous Prefect here is our brother Percy."

"Jennifer MacAvity but I prefer to be called Jen," Jen said and took a bite of a boiled potato. "You said your last name was Weasley does that mean you are related to Ron?"

"Yes, ickle Ronniekinns is our little brother," George said and Jen laughed at the nickname.

"How many brothers do you have, exactly?" Jen asked George.

"I have five brothers and one sister," George said.

"Wow," Jen said. "I only have two siblings and I think that's enough, I can´t imagine to have six."

Jen suddenly got the sensation of being ducked into a bucket of ice water. Jen looked away from George and looked around for the source of the sensation. She saw the ghost in a ruff looking sadly at Harry who was cutting up his steak and guessed that the ghost had moved and his arm had gone right through her and caused the sensation.

"Can´t you-?" Harry said.

"I haven´t eaten for nearly five hundred years," the ghost said. "I don´t need to, of course, but one does miss it. I don´t think I´ve introduced myself? Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower."

"I know who you are!" Ron said suddenly. "My brothers told me about you – you´re Nearly Headless Nick!"

"I would _prefer_ you call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy –" the ghost began stiffly, but a sandy-haired boy Jen thought was called Seamus Finnigan, interrupted him.

" _Nearly_ Headless? How can you be _nearly_ headless?"

At some way Jen didn´t want to know how someone could be nearly headless, it didn´t sound nice and certainly wouldn´t look nice.

Sir Nicholas looked extremely miffed, as if their little chat wasn´t going at all the way he wanted.

"Like _this,_ " he said irritably.

Jen had been right when she thought that she didn´t want to know how someone could be nearly headless because when Sir Nicholas seized his left ear and pulled his whole head swung off his neck and fell onto his shoulder as if it was on a hinge. Someone had obviously tried to behead him, but not done it properly. Jen shuddered and felt a bit nauseous at the sight.

Looking pleased at the stunned looks on the first-years faces, Nearly Headless Nick flipped his head back onto his neck, coughed, and said, "So, new Gryffindors! I hope you´re going to help us win the House Championship this year? Gryffindor have never gone so long without winning. Slytherins have got the cup six years in a row! The Bloody Baron´s becoming almost unbearable- he´s the Slytherin ghost."

Jen looked over at the Slytherin table and saw a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood. He was right next to Draco Malfoy, the white-blond boy who had pushed her and Hermione at the train, who didn´t look very pleased with the seating arrangement.

"How did he get covered in blood?" Seamus asked with great interest.

"I´ve never asked," Nearly Headless Nick said delicately.

When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the desserts appeared. It was all kinds of desserts and Jen immediately helped herself to the things she thought looked good.

As Jen started to eat a piece of pie, the talk turned to families.

"I´m half and half," Seamus said. "Me dad´s a muggle. Mam didn´t tell him she was a witch ´til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him."

Jen laughed together with the others.

"Both my parents are muggles," Jen said when the laughter had died down. "But my brother is a wizard, he´s a fifth year Ravenclaw Prefect. It was a real chock for us when the wizard came and told us Peter was a wizard. We didn´t believe him until he turned one of our flower pots into a turtle. He wasn´t that good at transfiguration, though, because the flower was still growing out of the shell."

The others laughed.

"What about you, Neville?" Ron said.

"Well, my gran brought me up and she´s a witch," Neville said. "But the family thought I was all-muggle for ages. My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off guard and force some magic out of me- he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned- but nothing happened until I was eight. Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of the upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced, all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased, Gran was crying, she was so happy. And you should have seen their faces when I got in here, they thought I might not be magical enough to come, you see. Great Uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad."

"I don´t know if I am muggleborn or halfblood," said a dark- skinned boy called Dean Thomas. "I don´t know if my dad was a wizard or not."

The others continued to talk about families but Jen turned away because she heard Hermione and Percy talking about lessons.

"I _do_ hope the lessons start right away," Hermione said. "There´s so much to learn, I´m particularly interested in transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else, of course, it´s supposed to be very difficult."

"Yeah, it is," Percy said. "You´ll be starting out small, though, just matches into needles and that sort of thing."

"I also think that transfiguration looks interesting," Jen said. "But I also think that potions look interesting, even if my brother says that the teacher is really scary and unfair."

"He is," Percy said. "You don´t want to make him angry..."

"Ouch!" Harry suddenly said and both Jen and Percy turned their heads to look at him and saw that he had clapped his hand over his forehead.

"What is it?" Percy asked.

"N-nothing," Harry said but Jen worriedly thought that he still looked weird. "Who´s the teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?"

Jen looked up at the teachers table and saw a pale and nervous looking young man in a turban sitting next to a teacher with a hooked nose, black greasy hair and sallow skin.

"Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you?" Percy said. "No wonder he´s looking so nervous, that´s Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn´t want to – everyone knows he´s after Quirrell´s job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape."

Jen looked at the hooked-nosed teacher again. So this is Snape, Jen thought, he looks really scary. Jen had secretly hoped that her brother had been wrong when he said that Snape was an overgrown evil bat but now when Jen saw him scowling at the students in front of him she had to admit that her brother had spoken the truth.

She looked away from Snape and turned to Hermione and started to talk about classes again while eating a delicious chocolate pudding.

When the puddings finally had disappeared, Professor Dumbledore stood up and the Great Hall fell silent.

"Ahem – just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of term notices to give you. First-years should note that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

Jen thought she saw Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flash in the direction of the Weasley twins when he said that.

"I have also been asked by Mr Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors. Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year; the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

Jen stared open mouthed at Dumbledore. He couldn´t be serous, could he?

"He´s not serious," Harry muttered to Percy and Jen leaned closer to hear Percy´s answer.

"Must be," Percy said, frowning at Dumbledore. "It´s odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we´re not allowed to go somewhere – the forest´s full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that. I do think he might have told us Prefects, at least."

Jen turned to Hermione and exchanged glances. What could be so dangerous that Dumbledore hadn´t even told the Prefects what it was?

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" Dumbledore cried.

Jen looked around the Great Hall and saw many confused and worried faces and when she looked up to the teachers table she saw that the teacher's smiles had turned rather fixed.

Dumbledore didn´t seem to notice this, though, and just gave his wand a little flick as if he was trying to get a fly off the end and a long golden ribbon flew out of it. The ribbon rouse high up in the air and twisted like a snake so it formed words.

"Everyone pick your favourite tune," Dumbledore said. "And off we go!"

Jen picked a happy tune and then she bellowed with the rest of the school:

" _Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,_

 _Teach us something please,_

 _Whether we be old and bald_

 _Or young with scabby knees,_

 _Our heads could do with filling_

 _With some interesting stuff,_

 _For now they´re bare and full of air,_

 _Dead flies and bits of fluff,_

 _So teach us things worth knowing,_

 _Bring back what we´ve forgot,_

 _Just do your best, we´ll do the rest,_

 _And learn until our brains all rot."_

Jen was one of the first to finish the song and listened happily when the rest of the school finished singing. At last, it was only the Weasley twins' left singing to a slow funeral march while Dumbledore conducted them with his wand. When they finally had stopped singing everyone clapped and Jen laughed.

"Ah, music," Dumbledore said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

As Jen stood she cached her brother's eyes and he smiled at her before he motioned her to follow Percy and the rest of the first-year Gryffindors. Percy led the first-years through the chattering crowd, out of the Great Hall and up the marble staircase. Jen was so tired that she was stumbling and it was more than one time she would have fallen over if it wasn´t for Hermione that held her up. Even if Jen was tired she tried to memorise the way Percy took so she would find her way to the Great Hall the next day.

Jen got a real chock when a fat knight in one of the paintings on the walls suddenly burst out in a loud laughter. It wasn´t until Seamus Finnigan walked into her that she realised that she had stopped to stare at the portrait and she hurriedly started walking after the rest of the first-years.

Jen was truly fascinated as they walked by talking portrait, through secret tunnels hidden behind sliding walls and hanging tapestries and all the magnificent staircases. Jen was just wondering how much further they had to go when she walked right into Harry and realised that they had stopped.

Jen first thought that they had arrived at the common room but then she saw a bundle of walking sticks hanging in mid-air ahead of them and realised that that wasn´t the case. Percy took a step forward and suddenly the walking sticks started to throw themselves at him.

"Peeves," Percy whispered to the first-years. "A poltergeist." He raised his voice, "Peeves – show yourself."

A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered.

"Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?"

There was a loud _pop_ and Jen took a step back in chock when a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross-legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.

"Ooooooooh!" he said, with an evil cackle. "Ickle Firsties! What fun!"

He suddenly swooped at them and Jen had to duck so swiftly she fell over and Hermione had to help her up.

"Go away, Peeves, or the Bloody Baron´ll hear about this, I mean it!" Percy barked.

Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished, dropping the walking sticks on Neville´s head. Jen, who stood beside Neville, had to jump out of the way of the walking sticks so she wouldn´t get hit by them. They heard Peeves zooming away, rattling coats of armour as he passed.

"You want to watch out for Peeves," Percy said as they started walking again. "The Bloody Baron´s the only one who can control him, he won´t even listen to us Prefects. Here we are."

They stood in the end of a corridor in front of the portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.

"Password?" she said.

" _Caput Draconis_ ," Percy said and the portrait swung forward to reveal a hole in the wall.

They scrambled trough it- Jen and Hermione had to help Neville- into the Gryffindor common room. It was a cosy, round room with squashy armchairs and a roaring fire. Jen instantly liked the room and looked forward to all the time she would spend there.

Percy directed Jen and the other first-year girl's trough a door and they walked up a spiral staircase until they came to another door where it stood `First years´. They walked in to their dormitory, which also was round and cosy and standing against the wall with their trunks by them were four four-poster beds hung with deep-red velvet curtains.

Jen had the bed that was closest to the door and pulled out her pyjamas from her trunk and started to get ready for bed, the other girls did the same. Jen and Hermione, who had the bed next to Jen´s, shared the dormitory with a brown haired girl and an Indian girl.

"My name is Lavender Brown" the brown-haired girl suddenly said.

"Parvati Patil," the other girl said.

"Hermione Granger."

"Jennifer MacAvity but you can call me Jen."

"Oooh, you are the Hatstall," Lavender said excitedly. "Why did it take so long for the hat to decide where it should put you?"

"It decided between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw mostly even though it considered Hufflepuff too," Jen said as she petted Silver, who was sleeping at her pillow, before lying down beside the cat.

"Cool," Lavender said. "Isn´t it so amazing that Harry Potter is in our house and year?"

"Yeah," Parvati said. "I had heard he would be in our year but I had never hoped to be in the same house as him. My sister Padma is going to be so jealous, she´s in Ravenclaw."

Parvati and Lavender continued to gossip and talk.

"I don´t know about you," Hermione said after a while, "but I´m going to bed and I would appreciate if you would be a bit quieter."

Both Lavender and Parvati stopped talking and went to bed. Soon all four Gryffindor girls were sleeping soundly.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don´t own anything all rights go to J.K. Rowling**

 **Chapter 6: The Potions Master**

 **AN: I´m so, so, so sorry I haven´t posted anything in such a long time but I´ve been really busy and I haen´t had the motivation to write. I´ve had a little time to write so I´ve just started on chapter 11. Unfortunately I won´t have much time to write because I have school but I will try to post a new chapter soon.**

 **I hope you enjoy the chapter**

Jen and Hermione walked down to the breakfast together the next morning. They only got lost once, thanks to that both girls had paid attention when they had been led to Gryffindor Tower the night before.

Jen and Hermione had started the day early so they would have a lot of time to finding the way to their first class. Because of that they were one of the first that came down to breakfast in the Great Hall. One of the other students that were in the Great Hall at that time was Peter. When Jen saw him she ran up and hugged him and he laughed at her.

"So how is it to be a Gryffindor?" he asked Jen as he followed her and Hermione to the Gryffindor table.

"Okay," Jen said as they sat down and started to load their plates with breakfast. "I´m a bit sad I´m not in Ravenclaw, though."

"Don´t be," Peter said. "I´m glad you´re in Gryffindor, it´s a good house."

"Well I´m glad to be in Gryffindor too, especially as I´m in the same house as Hermione," Jen said smiling at Hermione who smiled back at her.

"Good," Peter said. "Do you want me to help you find your first class?"

"Yeah, that would be great," Jen said.

Hermione and Jen had been lucky to have Peter leading them to their first lesson because they soon realised that it was hard to find the right way in the great castle, especially when people now and then whispered about Jen being a Hatstall or gathering in annoying groups outside their classrooms and the corridors because they wanted to see the famous Harry Potter.

Jen had read in _Hogwarts: A History_ that there was one hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts, and all of them had their own quirks. Some staircases were broad and sweeping, others was narrow and rickety, some stairs led to different places when they felt like it and others had a vanishing step that Jen always forgot to jump over. The doors, too, had their own quirks and Jen had more than once walked into them, to the great amusement to those around her, because she had forgotten to tickle the door in the right spot or they hadn´t been a door at all but a wall pretending to be one. Sometimes the doors moved too, so that places they had been were the wall behind them and the door where somewhere else.

The portraits, suits of armour and ghosts didn´t make it easier to find the classroom either; in fact they often made it harder.

The suits of armour kept moving about and the people in the paintings kept visiting each other so when Jen thought she could find her way to a classroom she often went the wrong way because everything had moved about from the last time she had been there. The ghosts added to the confusion as they had the nasty habit to glide through walls Jen walked by or through doors that she tried to open. Jen thought that the only helpful ghost in the castle was Nearly Headless Nick who was always happy to help direct the new Gryffindors to their classes.

Then there was Peeves who Jen always was scared to meet in the corridors because if you met him when you were late to a lesson you could expect two locked doors and a false staircase. Even if you wasn´t late to a lesson he would drop waste-paper baskets on your head, pull away the carpet under your feet and bombard you with chalk pieces or sneak up on you from behind, invisible, and grab your nose and screech, "GOT YOUR CONK!"

It was easy to get lost which also happened to Hermione and Jen before their first History of Magic lesson. They had been wandering around for awhile and had only 5 minutes till the lesson started when they finally met a fourth year Hufflepuff.

"Excuse me, but could you show us to the History of Magic classroom, we´ve gotten lost," Jen asked.

"Sure," the Hufflepuff said.

He showed them to the classroom.

"Thank you..." Jen said.

"Cedric Diggory," the Hufflepuff said. "And it was nothing."

"Well, thank you Cedric," Jen said before going into the classroom.

Worse than finding the classrooms and Peeves was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Jen, Harry and Ron had gotten on his wrong side the very first day. Jen had been late to lunch so Hermione had gone to their next class without her. Jen had instead followed Harry and Ron to class as they were the only Gryffindors left in the Great Hall; the only problem was that they had gotten lost, again. It ended with that they had tried to get through a locked door that turned out to be the forbidden one on the third floor corridor. Filch had caught them trying to open it and he wouldn´t believe that they didn´t know where they were, let alone knowing it was the forbidden one. Right in the middle of Filch´s threat of locking them in the dungeon they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher who stuttered and wore a turban.

After the Filch incident Jen, Harry and Ron had become friendlier with each other.

Filch also had a cat who was called Mrs Norris and was the only animal Jen could truly say she hated. Mrs Norris was a scrawny, dust-coloured pest, with popping lamp-like eyes like her owner´s. Any rule broken in front of her and in a matter of seconds, Filch would come running. He knew the castle's secret passage ways better than anyone (except the Weasley twins, Jen soon discovered).

When Jen finally had found her way to the classrooms she soon noticed that magic was even trickier than she had thought. Even though the lessons were hard she thought that she never had had such fun or interesting lessons.

At midnight every Wednesday night Jen had Astronomy and had to go up to the tallest tower and study the night sky through her telescope. She had to learn the movements and the difficult names of the planets, stars and constellations. Jen hated the class as she never could see the difference between the different stars, constellations and planets; she thought they looked the same all the time. She was also very tired the next day and it was harder to concentrate on the other lessons.

Jen had Herbology three times a week and had to go out to the greenhouses behind the castle. Herbology was taught by dumpy little witch called Pomona Sprout and she taught them how to take care of the strange plants and fungi and what they were used for. Jen liked the subject and was quiet good at it too even though she wasn´t the best in the class.

History of Magic was the most boring lesson Jen ever had had. It was thought by a ghost, Professor Binns, and the most exciting thing that happened during the lessons was when he came floating through the blackboard. Binns had a voice that made it hard for Jen to stay awake during his lessons and if it wasn´t for Hermione, who shook her awake now and then during the lesson, she would have slept through his whole class. Jen knew that she probably would fail the class if Hermione didn´t lend Jen her notes.

Charms were thought by Professor Flitwick, a tiny man who had to stand on a pile of books to reach his desk. Jen thought the subject was interesting and Flitwick was a brilliant teacher who made it easy to understand what the different charms could do and what they could be used for. In their first Charms class Jen had gotten a good laughe when Professor Flitwick had gone through the register and when he had come to Harry´s name he had given an excited squeak and toppled off his stack of books.

Jen´s absolute favourite subject was Transfiguration and it was taught by Professor McGonagall, the Head of Gryffindor house and Jen´s favourite teacher. In their first lesson with her she gave them all a stern and firm talking to the moment they entered the classroom.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

Then, to Jen´s and the rest of the class amazement, she changed her desk into a pig and back again. Jen, who had looked forward to this class since she had found out that magic existed, was really excited to start, even if it only was on a small scale. Professor McGonagall started the lesson by making them take a lot of complicated notes and then she told them that they would turn a match into a needle. By the end of the lesson Jen and Hermione were the only ones to make a change to their matches; they had turned silver and pointy. To Jen´s great chock her match had become a little more needle like than Hermione´s, it was the first time she had done something better than Hermione in any class. Professor McGonagall showed the whole class the matches and then awarded them both with house points and one of her rare smiles.

Jen had looked forward to Defense Against the Dark Arts nearly as long as she had looked forward to Transfiguration. Defense Against the Dark Arts was the subject that would teach them how to defend themselves if they ever needed to but Professor Quirrell´s lessons was a bit of a joke. The room smelled very strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off vampires. Jen didn´t care why he had all the garlic, the only thing it did was make her nauseous. The turban Quirrell had on his head was also apparently a thank-you gift from an African village he had saved from an annoying zombie, but Jen didn´t believe him, for when Seamus Finnigan, who liked interesting stories, excitedly asked him how he had gotten rid of it, Professor Quirrell immediately changed the subject.

Another reason that Jen didn´t believe Quirrell was that his turban also smelled funny and the Weasley twins, who Jen had become quite good friends with, joked that he had stuffed it full with garlic too so he would be protected wherever he went.

Jen soon realised that, even if the classes were hard, she had no problem to keep up with her fellow classmates in the different subjects, except in Astronomy which seemed to be a lost cause for her. Jen was often one of the best students in the class, not as good as Hermione but better than many of their classmates. Hermione had made it her goal to be top of every class, which she also was. The others in their class thought it was annoying but Jen was proud of her friend, even though she thought her friend was a bit of a know-it-all at times.

Jen and Hermione had become really good friends. They sat with each other in class and in the common room. Hermione and Jen hadn´t really become good friends with the other two girls in their dorm; they were to different personality wise. Parvati and Lavender both liked to talk about boys, relationships and makeup and clothes while Hermione and Jen liked to talk about school, books and classes. Parvati and Lavender also thought that Hermione, and Jen to a certain level, was a know-it-all and couldn´t see past that and see the really nice girl Hermione actually was.

Jen mostly talked with Harry and Ron during lessons. They were friendly enough towards her but they didn´t like her that much because she was such good friends with Hermione.

Jen had talked a bit with the other three Gryffindor boys, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan and Neville Longbottom. When Jen had gotten enough of studying and Hermione hadn´t or she couldn´t find Hermione, she often hung around Seamus, Dean and Neville. They had become quite good friends and Seamus and Neville had explained a lot of things about the wizarding world for her and Dean. Jen knew a little from the books she had read and what her brother had told her but it was so much better to have someone who had grown up in the wizarding world explain things she didn´t understand.

When Jen didn´t hung around any of the others in her year she often talked with the Weasley twins. The day after the sorting they had come to talk to her and been quiet chocked when she on first try had gotten their names right, then they had declared her to be their friend and showed her and Hermione the fastest way to their next class.

At Friday Harry and Ron walked into the Great Hall for breakfast, looking rather pleased with themselves, and sat down at the Gryffindor table. Jen thought it was odd but didn´t thought so much about it because just then the mail arrived, hundreds of owls swooping across the ceiling, dropping parcels and letters into people´s laps. The first time Jen saw it her chocked facial expression must have been hilarious to look at because Fred and George, whom had sat in front of her, had nearly toppled out of their chairs in laughter when they looked at her.

Jen looked up hopefully and became really happy to see Popcorn flying in with the rest of the owls. Jen and Peter had each sent a letter home to Olivia with Popcorn the day after the sorting and now the white and brown owl had finally returned with an answer.

Popcorn gracefully flew down and landed in front of Jen and she carefully took the letter that was tied to his right leg and gave him a piece of her bacon before he flew away towards the Ravenclaw table with a second letter.

Jen opened the letter and read:

 _Dear Jen_

 _I´m really glad that you got into Gryffindor. It´s the brave house with red and gold colours, right?_

 _I´m glad you liked the lessons but please, please, please can you tell me more about them? I really want to know!_

 _Mum and dad are fine and I managed to keep Popcorn away from mother. She never even noticed he was here otherwise she would have forbidden me to reply so soon so that Popcorn wouldn´t ruin their reputation amongst the neighbours._

 _I think they just realised you won't be home until Christmas. They aren´t home much either, they have just gotten another huge case and are working all the time again._

 _It´s quiet boring here without you and Peter. I´m already looking forward to Christmas when you´re coming home and can tell me everything about Hogwarts that Peter has left out._

 _Write back soon_

 _Olivia_

Jen looked up from the letter and smiled; she was really happy to hear from her little sister and decided that she would write a reply that evening. She putt the letter in her book bag before she looked around the table and saw that Harry´s snowy owl Hedwig had delivered a letter to him. Jen had never seen him get a letter before and wondered what it was about but didn´t pay it much mind because Hermione said something to her.

"What lessons do we have today?" Hermione asked.

"Eh... Double Potions with the Slytherins," Jen said and groaned. They had only been at Hogwarts for a week and Jen had already learned that every Slytherins goal was to tease and make fun of the Gryffindors. So as if it wasn´t enough to have Snape teaching the class they would share it with Slytherins who Snape would favour because he was their head of house. "And then we have the afternoon off."

"Why do we have to have the class with the Slytherins?" Hermione said irritably. "They will only make it harder for us to concentrate and if what we have heard about Professor Snape is true he will probably be even harder on us because he has his favoured Slytherins there."

"Well at least we have the afternoon off to look forward too," Jen said.

"Yeah, you´re right," Hermione said. "We can do the homework Professor Snape will undoubtedly give us and finish Professor McGonagall's homework from yesterday."

Even though McGonagall was Head of Gryffindor house she had given them a huge pile of homework the day before. Jen and Hermione had done most of it the night before and hoped to finish it in the afternoon in the library, if they could find their way there.

((&))

Jen had both been looking forward to and dreaded the Potions lesson. Looking forward to it because it seemed to be an interesting subject and dreaded it because of the teacher.

When the lesson started she understood everything people said about Snape being an evil bat that only favoured the Slytherins were true.

The Potions lesson was held down in one of the cold and drafty dungeons with the only source of heat being the fires under their cauldrons. There was also pickled animals lined up on the walls in jars and Jen thought the overall effect was that the whole dungeon was rather creepy.

Like Professor Flitwick, Snape started the lesson with register, and paused at Harry´s name.

"Ah, yes," he said softly. "Harry Potter. Our new - _celebrity._ "

Draco Malfoy and some other Slytherins laughed at that and Jen glared at them, Malfoy was the Slytherin Jen disliked the most as he always managed to tease or in some other way torment Jen, Hermione and the rest of the Gryffindors, especially Harry. Snape ignored the Slytherins behaviour and only continued to take the register.

When Snape finished calling the names he looked out over the class and Jen shivered and swallowed nervously as she looked into his black eyes. Snape´s eyes reminded Jen of long, cold, dark tunnels with something scary and evil in the end of them.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began to say as he had finished the register. He spoke very quietly, but Jen was able to catch every word he said. Like Professor McGonagall he was able to keep the class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here many of you will hardly think this is magic. I don´t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory and even stopper death- if you aren´t as big bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

No one talked after he had finished talking. Hermione, who was sitting next to Jen, sat at the edge of her seat and looked eager to prove that she wasn´t a dunderhead. Jen shuffled in her seat as Snape´s eyes swept over the class and Jen hoped that he didn´t wrote them all off as dunderheads only because they were Gryffindors and actually gave them a chance to prove themselves.

"Potter!" Snape said suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Jen knew the answer and together with Hermione´s her hand shot up in the air.

"I don´t know, sir," Harry said.

Snape´s lip curled into a sneer.

"Tut, tut- fame isn´t everything."

He ignored Jen and Hermione´s hands.

"Let´s try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without leaving her seat; Jen also stretched her hand up in the air but not as high as Hermione's. Jen tried to avoid looking at Malfoy and his gang, who was shaking with laughter.

"I don´t know, sir," Harry said again.

"Thought you wouldn´t have to open a book before coming, eh, Potter?"

Jen started to become really angry. Harry couldn´t answer the question, but Jen and Hermione could, so let one of them answer the question so he could learn the answer.

But Snape still ignored Hermione and Jen´s hands.

"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

At this Hermione stood up in her seat, her hand stretching towards the ceiling. Jen also raised her hand, but without much hope of getting to answer the question.

"I don´t know, sir," Harry said quietly. "I think Hermione and Jen does, though, why don´t you try one of them?"

Jen´s face reddened in embarrassment but she smiled anyway and she heard a few others laugh. Snape, though, was not pleased at all.

"Sit down," he snapped at Hermione and glared viciously at Jen, who immediately took her hand down. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A besoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name aconite. Well? Why aren´t you all copying that down?"

Jen, who already had her quill and a piece of parchment on her desk, immediately wrote down what Snape had just said while the rest of the class started to rummage after quills and parchment.

"And a point will be taken from Gryffondor house for your cheek, Potter," Snape said over the noise of people rummaging for quills and parchment.

Jen looked up from her own parchment and glared at Snape, he really was unfair.

As the lesson continued things didn´t improve for the Gryffindors. Snape put them into pairs and set them to mix up simple potion to cure boils. Jen and Hermione worked together and, to both their chock, they soon discovered that Jen was the best at the subject. After a while they realised that it was easier that Jen mixed the potion while Hermione read the instructions and fetched the ingredients, while now and then coming with more or less helpful advices, and they took turns to weigh and cut the ingredients.

Snape also made it harder to concentrate by walking around the dungeon in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, who he seemed to like. He didn´t criticize Jen and Hermione´s potion either, but when he swept past them he looked at their potion, wrinkled his nose and then walked away, like he wanted to criticize their potion but didn´t find anything to criticize.

He was just telling everyone how perfectly Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs, even though Jen had done it better, when clouds of acid green smoke and a load hissing filled the dungeon. Neville, who was sitting two tables away from Jen and Hermione, had somehow managed to melt Seamus´s cauldron into a twisted blob and the potion had welled out on the floor. Jen had had to hurriedly jump up on her stool so the potion wouldn´t burn holes in her shoes the rest of the class followed her example and soon the whole class were standing balancing on their stools.

Jen looked over to Neville and saw that he must have been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed because now he had angry red boils popping up all over his body as he moaned in pain.

"Idiot boy!" Snape snarled, clearing the potion away with only a wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"

Jen glared at Snape. Couldn´t he see that Neville was in pain? Jen was just about to walk over to Neville when Snape spoke again.

"Take him up to the hospital wing," he spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville. "You, Potter, why didn´t you tell him to not add the quills? Thought he´d make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That´s another point you´ve lost Gryffindor."

Jen glared down at her potion, fuming. Harry had been preoccupied with his own potion, he couldn´t check everyone else's potion too. The rest of the lesson Jen spent between mixing the potion and glaring at Snape.

Jen was still furious as they climbed up the stairs from the dungeon.

"Oh, I can´t believe him," she said to Hermione. "Taking points when he shouldn´t and treat Harry like that."

"Yeah, it´s unacceptable," Hermione said. "He took away all the points McGonagall gave us for turning the matches when hr should´ve given our potion at least one point, it was a lot better than Malfoy´s."

"Yeah, but he didn´t say anything about it and I think that is a good sign," Jen said. "I mean, he complained at everyone else´s potions, so it has to be a good sign that he didn´t complained at ours."

Hermione nodded as they continued to walk up the stairs.

((&))

At the afternoon that day Hermione and Jen had managed to make their way to the library and sat at one of the tables and finished the last of their Transfiguration homework. After awhile Peter came into the library and sat down with them. He was reading an ex of the _Daily Prophet,_ a wizarding newspaper.

"Is there something interesting in there?" Jen asked him.

"Yeah, read this," Peter said and pushed the newspaper towards Jen and Hermione.

 _GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST_

 _Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown._

 _Gringotts´ goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day._

" _But we´re not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what´s good for you" said a spokesgoblin this afternoon._

"I thought it was impossible to break into Gringotts," Hermione said.

"Obviously it isn´t," Peter said and then he lowered his voice. "I´ve heard that a lot of people think that it´s You-Know-Who who has done it and it´s worrying a lot of people."

"Do you think it´s him?" Jen asked her brother worriedly.

"Maybe, I don´t know," he said. "But I know one thing and that is that I´m glad that whoever emptied the vault emptied it before it was broken into."

Jen and Hermione nodded before looking at each other. What could have been in the vault? And where was it now? Both Jen and Hermione thought it was harder to concentrate on studying after that as both were wondering what could have been in the vault but neither came up with an answer to the questions.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I don´t own anything all rights go to J.K. Rowling**

 **Chapter 7: The Midnight Duel**

 **AN: I´m so sorry I haven't written in so long but I have had a lot of schoolwork and haven´t had the time to write and when the summer holiday started we went and visited family and I hadn´t any internet connection there so I couldn´t publish anything.**

 **I have nearly finished writing chapter 12 now but I doubt I will be posting much because I will be going away again next week. I hope I will publish one more chapter before I´m going away though.**

 **Hope you enjoy the chapter**

It took some time but Jen had finally gotten used to everything at Hogwarts. She did well in most of her lessons, especially Transfiguration and Potions, even if she didn´t like Snape. It was only in Astronomy and History of Magic that Jen struggled. Even though History of Magic was an interesting subject Jen had a hard time concentrating because Professor Binns voice lulled her to sleep and in Astronomy Jen could never understand anything of what the Astronomy teacher, Professor Sinistra, said. If it wasn´t for Hermione Jen would probably fail both subjects.

Even though Jen didn´t like Astronomy and History of Magic she loved Hogwarts more for every day that vent by. She loved the castle with its many staircases and moving portraits, the Gryffindor common room with its roaring fire and squashy armchairs and the Great Hall with its floating candles and big feasts.

But there were also things Jen hated about Hogwarts and that were Snape and Slytherins. Snape had made it his goal to make every Potions lesson hell for the Gryffindors, especially for Harry. The subject Jen was the absolutely best in was also the subject Jen dreaded the most. She hated to go down in the cold dungeon to have Potions with Snape and it didn´t make it better that they had the Potions lessons together with the Slytherins.

All of the Slytherins hated the Gryffindors and the Gryffindors hated the Slytherins back. The Slytherin Jen hated the most was Draco Malfoy. She had never thought she could hate a person more than Tracy Danvers, the bully in her old school, but she defiantly hated Draco Malfoy more than Tracy.

Fortunately the Gryffindors hadn´t had much contact with the Slytherins other than Potions, that is until a notice was pinned up in the Gryffinndor common room telling them that they would have their flying lessons together. The flying lessons started on Thursday the same week as the notice was pinned up.

Jen read the notice about the flying lesson together with Hermione and both girls were equally nervous about it. Jen knew that the last thing she wanted to do was sitting on a broom several meters in the air while being laughed at by Slytherins. Jen knew that Hermione felt the same, especially when she couldn't learn flying by reading it out of a book.

The days leading up to the flying lesson didn´t make Jen less nervous. Everyone was talking about flying and the flying lesson and nearly all the halfbloods and purebloods, especially Malfoy, were bragging about their flying escapades, they had nearly flown into hang gliders, nearly been spotted by muggles or crashed in fields. Neville was one of the few from a magical family that hadn´t been on a broom before and that was only because his gran didn't allow him, Jen thought that was a good thing with how often the boy got into accidents with both his feet at the ground.

At Thursday Jen, Neville and Hermione were all very nervous about the flying lesson. At breakfast that day Hermione bored their classmates stupid by reading out tips about flying from a library book called _Quidditch through the Ages_. Jen and Neville was the only ones that appreciated it because they desperately hoped that it might help them staying on their brooms.

Unfortunately Hermione was interrupted by the arrival of the mail. Jen looked up and wondered if Olivia would send a reply to her latest message, which she had sent the evening after she had opened Olivia's last letter. Jen looked down when the stream of owls started to thin as she thought that Popcorn wouldn´t show up this morning.

Suddenly the white and brown owl flew down and crashed into Jen´s porridge. The porridge covered owl looked a bit chocked but stood up anyway and stretched out his leg where a letter was fastened.

"Thank you Popcorn," Jen said with a laugh and gave the owl a piece of bacon before reading her letter.

 _Dear Jen_

 _After reading your letter I just wish more than ever that I´m a witch and will be going to Hogwarts. All the classes seem so exciting and much more interesting than the normal classes I take and the common room seems amazing. I would really want to sit in one of those armchairs in front of the fire, they sound so cosy._

 _And Jen I can´t believe that you have started with this `ghosts exist´ thing Peter always goes on about. Just so you know I don´t believe either of you._

 _I don´t like what you´re saying about the Slytherins and Snape, they seems really bad. But I don´t think that all Slytherins are evil; I mean, some of them have to be good._

 _I am eagerly looking forward to your next letter, Jen, and it has to be really good with a lot of information about Hogwarts._

 _Love from_

 _Olivia_

Jen smiled at her sister's letter, she was glad that her sister was excited to hear about Hogwarts and really hoped that her sister would get a Hogwarts letter one day.

Jen put Olivia's letter in her book bag and looked up and saw that Neville had received a small package from his grandma. When he opened the package it revealed a glass ball the size of a large marble and it was filled with white smoke.

"It´s a Rememberall!" he exclaimed. "Gran knows I forget things, this tells you if there´s something you´ve forgotten to do. Look you hold it like this and if it turns red...oh..." his face fell, because the Rememberall suddenly turned scarlet. "...you´ve forgotten something..."

Jen was trying to help Neville remember what he had forgotten when Draco Malfoy, as he passed by the Gryffindor table, snatched the Rememberall out of Neville´s hand.

"Hey, give it back!" Jen said as Harry and Ron, whom sat nearby, jumped to their feet. It looked like they wanted to hit Malfoy, but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble much the faster than any other teacher, was there in a flash.

"What´s going on?"

"Malfoy´s got Neville´s Rememberall, Professor," Jen said.

Malfoy scowled, but put the Rememberall back on the table.

"Just looking," he said, before walking away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him like ducklings.

((&))

At three-thirty Jen, Hermione and the rest of the first-year Gryffindors hurried down the front steps into the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear but breezy day and Jen shivered as the grass rippled under her feet while she marched down the sloping lawns towards a smooth lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the Forbidden Forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.

As Jen and the rest of the Gryffindors reached the area where they would have their flying lessons they saw the Slytherins standing around twenty broomstick lying in neat lines on the ground.

Fred and George had complained endlessly to Jen about the school brooms ever since they got to know when the first-years would have their first flying lesson. They were always going on about how some of the brooms would vibrate if you flew too high, always fly slightly left or don´t listen to the flyers commands at all.

The school brooms bad reputation didn´t help Jen´s worries about flying. The twins had tried to calm her down but it hadn´t helped much as she was still really worried and thought that she would fall off the broom.

The flying teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived right after the Gryffindors. She had short, grey hair and yellow eyes like a hawk and Jen thought that it was a bit scary how someone could have that eye colour.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" Madam Hooch barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

Jen worriedly looked down at her broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out in strange directions, others were missing.

"Stick your right hand over your broom," Madam Hooch called from the front. "And say, UP!"

"UP!" everyone shouted.

Jen´s broom didn´t even twitch. She looked up and saw that Harry´s broom had flown up in his hand on first try, but that many others just like hers, still was on the ground. Jen looked down at her broom and said "UP" again, this time the broom twitched. She sighed and said it again; it took four more tries before the broom finally jumped up in her hand. When she looked up, with the broom in her hand, she saw that it was just Hermione and Neville left to get the brooms up to their hands.

When everyone had their brooms in their hands, Madam Hooch showed them the right way to mount the brooms without sliding off the end and then corrected their grips. Jen had had to hold in her laughter when Madam Hooch told Malfoy, who had been bragging how good he was at flying, that he had been doing it wrong for years.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," Madam Hooch said when everyone was holding their brooms correctly. "Keep your broomstick steady, rise a few feet and then come straight down by leaning forwards slightly. On my whistle...three...two..."

But Neville, as he was scared, nervous and jumpy, pushed off before Madam Hooch had blown the whistle.

"Come back, boy!" she shouted at him, but Neville was rising faster than a cork shooting out of a bottle. He was at least twenty feet in the air, his white face looked horrified down at the ground and he gasped, slipped with his hands and fell sideways off the broom and...

WHAM- there was a thud and a nasty crack, Jen winced and looked worriedly at Neville, who was lying face down in a heap. His broom flew lazily away to the Forbidden Forest and out of sight.

Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face was pepper white.

"Broken wrist," she said and Jen let out a relived sigh over that it wasn´t anything worse. "Come on boy, it´s alright, up you get."

She turned to them.

"None of you is to move as much as a finger while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you´ll be out of Hogwarts before you can say `Quidditch´. Come on dear."

With his face wet of tears, Neville hobbled away with Madam Hooch´s arm around him.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Malfoy burst out laughing.

"Did you see his face, the great lump?"

The other Slytherins laughed too.

"Shut up, Malfoy," Parvati snapped.

"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" said Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin girl that Jen thought had an uncanny resemblance to a pug. "Never thought _you´d_ like fat little cry-babies, Parvati."

"Shut up, Parkinson," Jen said calmly. "No one wants to hear your opinion."

Before Pansy could answer Malfoy interrupted.

"Look!" he said, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It´s that stupid thing Longbottom´s gran sent him."

Jen saw the Rememberall glinting in the sunshine as he held it up.

"Give it here, Malfoy," Harry said quietly and everyone stopped to watch.

Malfoy smiled nastily.

"I think I´ll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to collect- how about- up a tree?"

"Give it _here_!" Harry yelled, but Malfoy was already on his broomstick up in the air.

Even Jen, who didn´t know a thing about flying, could see that Malfoy actually was a really good flyer, much to her disappointment. He was hovering near the highest branches of a large oak.

"Come get it, Potter!" he cried.

Harry grabbed his broom.

" _No_!" Hermione shouted. "Madam Hooch told us not to move- you´ll get us all in trouble."

"Harry, Hermione´s right, you can get thrown out of Hogwarts!" Jen shouted.

But Harry ignored them. He kicked off hard and whooshed into the air. Jen just looked at Harry- he could fly even better than Malfoy.

He went higher and higher, Jen gasped and she heard Ron whoop in awe.

Harry and Malfoy were now facing each other and seemed to be talking. Jen couldn´t hear what they said, neither could she see their expressions. Suddenly Harry shot forward towards Malfoy, who succeeded in getting out of the way in the last moment. Harry did a sharp turn so that he and Malfoy faced each other again.

Malfoy suddenly threw the Rememberall, and Harry shot after it.

He went in a steep dive, Jen and some other girls screamed at this, and a foot over the ground he caught it. He pulled up and toppled gently onto the ground. Jen felt immense relief and happiness in seeing that Harry was okay and clutching the Rememberall in his hand.

"HARRY POTTER!"

Jen´s heart fell as she saw Professor McGonagall running towards them. He´s going to get thrown out of Hogwarts was the only thing Jen could think off.

" _Never_ \- in all my time at Hogwarts-"

Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock and she looked furious.

"- How _dare_ you, might´ve broken your neck..."

"It wasn´t his fault, Professor..."

"Be quiet, Miss Patil..."

"But, Professor, it was Malfoy..."

"Not now, Miss MacAvity..."

"But Malfoy..."

"That´s _enough_ , Mr Weasley. Potter, follow me, now."

Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle looked triumphant as Professor McGonagall led Harry away.

Jen looked forlornly after him.

"What did I say?" Hermione said when they had disappeared. "He would get us all in trouble, and now he has gotten himself expelled!"

Every Gryffindor in the class glared at her, even Jen.

"Not now, Hermione," was all Jen could say.

Madame Hooch came back a couple of minutes later, and immediately saw Harry´s abandoned broomstick.

"Whose broom is this?" she asked.

"Harry´s, Professor McGonagall took him with her," Jen said. "He was flying and Professor McGonagall saw him."

"Then she will give him his punishment," Madam Hooch said. "We´ll continue class... At my whistle you'll take off from the ground...three...two...one...PUIII!"

Jen kicked off from the ground hard, exactly like Madam Hooch had instructed earlier, it was slightly terrifying to be up in the air, but everything, even the landing, was fine.

They tried that two more times before Madame Hooch said that they should fly a couple of feet before going back to the ground.

"You will kick off on my whistle..."Madam Hooch said. "Three...two...one...PUIII!"

Jen kicked off from the ground and she was in the air again. She leaned forward and the broom started moving, she was a bit unsteady but it went well, until the landing. She leaned forward a little more to land, but she leaned too much forward and the broom did a steep dive right in too the ground. Jen tumbled of the broom and hit the ground, hard. She groaned and sat up while Madam Hooch ran over to check on her.

"Nothing is broken, you will probably have some bruises, though," Madam Hooch said, relived. "I think we will end the lesson now, before someone else gets hurt."

Madam Hooch collected the brooms and then sent them back up to the castle.

As Jen and Hermione were walking up to the castle they heard Malfoy and the other Slytherins laugh.

"It seems Gryffindors can´t stay on their brooms today," Malfoy laughed. "Unlike us Slytherins, we are all natural flyers."

Hermione turned to Malfoy.

"Just so you know, you got bested in flying by a Gryffindor today," she said. "And he had no problems at all to stay at his broom and I saw at least five Slytherins that had problems staying on their brooms."

Before Malfoy could answer Jen and Hermione was already on their way up to the castle again.

((&))

"You´re _joking!_ "

Ron´s loud shout made Jen look up from her dinner and look over at him and Harry, whom were sitting a few places down the table from Jen and Hermione.

" _Seeker_?" Ron said. "But first-years _never_ – you must be youngest house player in about –"

"- a century," Harry said as he shovelled pie into his mouth. "Wood told me."

Jen looked at Hermione, who was looking confused but angry.

"He got to be Seeker on the Quidditch house team," Jen said angrily.

"So he was rewarded for breaking the rules?" Hermione said angrily. "I can´t believe it! He should at least have gotten detention!"

Jen nodded in agreement but didn´t answer as Fred and George ran up to Harry and Ron and she wanted to hear what they were saying.

"Well done," George said in a low voice and Jen heard Hermione scoff. "Wood told us. We´re on the team too – Beaters."

"I tell you, we´re going to win that Quidditch Cup for sure this year," Fred said. "We haven´t won since Charlie left, but this year´s team is going to be brilliant. You must be good Harry; Wood was almost skipping when he told us."

Jen had seen the burly fifth-year Quidditch captain a couple of times and she, even though she didn´t like that Harry had been awarded for breaking the rules, smiled and had to cover her laugh with a cough at the thought of Wood skipping.

"Anyways we´ve got to go; Lee Jordan reckons he´s found a new secret passageway out of the school."

"Bet it´s the one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week. See you."

They left, and were replaced with three other people. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle.

"Having a last meal, Potter?" Malfoy said. "When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?"

"You´re a lot braver now that you´re back on the ground and you´ve got your little friends with you," Harry said coolly.

Jen had to smile because there was nothing little about Crabbe or Goyle, but they couldn´t do anything with the High Table full of teachers.

"I´d take you on any time on my own," Malfoy said. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard´s duel. Wands only, no contact. What´s the matter? Never heard of a wizard´s duel before, I suppose?"

Harry will never do it, he won´t fall for Malfoy´s tricks, Jen thought.

"Of course he has," Ron said, wheeling around. "I´m his second, who´s yours?"

Jen groaned as she heard what Ron said as she couldn´t believe how stupid this was. It was clearly a trap and Jen hoped that they wouldn´t actually follow through with this.

Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up.

"Crabbe," he said "Midnight, all right? We´ll meet you in the trophy room, that´s always unlocked."

When Malfoy was gone, Harry turned to Ron.

"What _is_ a wizard´s duel?" he said. "And what did you mean with that you are my second?"

"The second is there if the first dies," Ron said casually, eating his now cold pie. But when he saw Harry´s face, Jen´s face probably looked similar even if Ron couldn´t see it, he hastily added: "But that only happens in real ones, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy can do is send sparks at each other."

"Oh, they can´t be serious," Hermione said. "They´re actually going to do it!"

She stood up and started to walk toward Harry and Ron; Jen also stood up and followed her.

"But if I wave my wand and nothing happens?" Harry said.

"Throw it away and punch him in the nose," Ron suggested.

Just then Hermione and Jen had come up to them.

"Excuse me," Hermione said.

Harry and Ron looked up at her.

"Can´t a person eat in peace in this place?" Ron said.

Hermione ignored him and Jen glared at him.

"We couldn´t help but overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying..." Hermione said.

"Bet you could," Ron muttered.

"...and you _mustn´t_ go wandering around the school at night, think of all the points you´ll lose for Gryffindor if you´re caught, and you´re bound to be. It´s really very selfish of you."

"And it´s really none of your business," Harry said.

"Goodbye," Ron said and Hermione walked out of the Great Hall.

Jen stayed behind and glared at Harry and Ron.

"That was really rude," Jen said to them.

"So?" Ron said glaring at her.

"You could be nicer to her," Jen said irritated. "And she is right, you know that don´t you? If you go tonight you will get caught, because Malfoy will have some plan to get you caught. He´s a Slytherin after all and you´ve already broken enough rules today, Harry. You were just lucky that it was McGonagall that saw you fly and not Snape. When you get caught tonight you will get detention, you know that right?"

"Keep your nose out," Ron said harshly and glared at her more harshly.

Jen glared back before she turned around and followed Hermione out of the Great Hall.

She found Hermione waiting for her in the Entrance Hall.

"Oh, they´re so infuriating!" Hermione said when they started to go up to the common room. "They´re going to sneak out tonight and then they´re going to get caught and they´ll lose Gryffindor a lot of points. Ugh, they´re so selfish... Maybe we should tell someone, Percy for example, he´s a Prefect, he could stop them."

"No, I don´t think that´s a good idea," Jen said. "They might not do it and if Percy knows he will probably tell a teacher and they will take points. I think we have to make sure they don´t sneak out ourselves."

"Well," Hermione said. "We can sit in the common room and catch them if they sneak out."

"Yeah," Jen said. "But I really hope they don´t do it."

Hermione nodded.

((&))

Jen and Hermione had followed Parvati and Lavender up to their dorm, but at eleven o'clock; they had climbed out of their beds and went down to the common room and sat down in two armchairs and waited.

They had waited around half an hour when they saw Harry and Ron come down from the boys' dorm. Jen couldn´t believe them, they were actually going to sneak out. They were at the portrait hole when Hermione decided to talk.

"I can´t believe you're going to do this, Harry," she said.

Jen lit a lamp so they could see each other. Hermione and Jen stood there, in pyjamas and dressing-gowns, and frowned at Harry and Ron while they looked back at them with chocked expressions.

" _You_!" Ron said furiously. "Go back to bed!"

"We almost told your brother, Percy," Hermione snarled. "He´s a _Prefect_. He´d put a stop to this."

"I really hope you have thought about this," Jen said. "Because if you haven´t now would be a really good time to do it, because what you´re doing´s really stupid."

Ron was about to say something back when Harry interrupted.

"Come on," he said to Ron.

Then he pushed the portrait of the Fat Lady open and climbed out, Ron following him.

Jen and Hermione followed them out of the portrait, Hermione hissing like an angry goose.

"Don´t you _care_ about Gryffindor, do you _only_ care about yourselves, _I_ don´t want Slytherin to win the House Cup and you´ll lose all the points Jen and I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about the Switching Spells."

"You can be thrown out of Hogwarts," Jen said. "Have you thought about that?"

"Go away, both of you."

"Alright, but we warned you," Hermione hissed. "You remember what we said when you´re on the train home tomorrow, you´re so..."

They never found out what Hermione thought Harry and Ron were, for Jen and Hermione had turned to the painting of the Fat Lady and found that it was empty. The Fat Lady had gone off somewhere and they were locked out.

"Now what are we going to do?" Hermione said shrilly.

"That´s your problem," Ron said. "We´re going to be late."

Harry and Ron started walking down the corridor and Jen looked at Hermione, who looked back at her.

"Come on, we have to go with them," Jen said quietly. "Maybe we can get them out of trouble."

Hermione nodded and together they cached up with Harry and Ron, who hadn´t even left the corridor.

"We´re coming with you," Hermione said.

"You are _not._ "

"D´you think we´re going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch us? If he finds all four of us I´ll tell him the truth: that we were trying to stop you and you can back us up," Hermione said.

"I am going to help you to not get caught," Jen said. "Because I don´t want Gryffindor to lose any points."

"You´ve got some nerve..." Ron said loudly.

"Shut up, all three of you!" Harry said sharply. "I heard something."

It was a snuffling noise and Jen´s felt all the colour leave her face as it sounded like Mrs Norris.

"Mrs Norris?" Ron breathed.

When Jen saw what it was that made the noise she felt the colour return to her face as it wasn´t Mrs Norris, but Neville. He was fast asleep on the floor but jerked awake as they crept nearer.

"Thank goodness you´ve found me! I´ve been out here for hours. I couldn´t remember the password to get back to bed."

"Keep your voice down, Neville," Ron said. "The password´s `Pig Snout´ but that won´t help you now; the Fat Lady´s gone off somewhere."

"Is your arm okay?" Jen asked.

"It´s fine," Neville said, showing them. "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute."

"Good," Harry said. "Well, look, Neville, we´ve got to be somewhere, we´ll see you later -"

"Don´t leave me!" Neville scrambled up. "I don´t want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron´s been past here twice already."

Ron looked at his watch and glared angrily at Hermione, Jen and Neville.

"If either of you get us caught, I´ll never rest until I´ve learnt that Curse of Bogies Quirrell told us about and used it on you."

Before any of them could say something more, Harry hissed at them to be quiet and then waved them all forward.

They slipped through corridors that had strips of moonlight from the windows. Jen had never been more nervous, not even at the Sorting. She was expecting Filch or Mrs Norris to be behind every corner but they were lucky, they met neither Filch nor Mrs Norris, and they reached the Trophy Room without seeing anybody.

The Trophy Room was empty, Malfoy wasn´t there. That Malfoy wasn´t there only made Jen surer that he had tricked them and wouldn´t show up.

They tiptoed through the room as the shining trophies and shields glittered and winked at them in the moonlight. The minutes crept by as they watched the two doors in the room.

"He´s late, maybe he´s chickened out," Ron whispered.

"He hasn´t chickened out, he won´t come because he has tricked you," Jen whispered back angrily.

A noise in the next room made them all jump and Harry raised his wand in case it was Malfoy. Jen backed a couple of steps, she had a feeling that it wasn´t Malfoy but something worse. Someone started to speak in the next room-and like Jen had thought it wasn´t Malfoy.

"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."

It was Filch and Mrs Norris. Jen was terrified as Harry waved at them to follow him out of the room. They had just gotten out when they heard Filch voice again.

"They´re here somewhere," Jen heard him mutter as he entered the Trophy Room. "Probably hiding"

"This way," Harry mouthed and petrified Jen followed him through a long gallery full of suits of armour. They could here Filch getting closer and closer. Suddenly, Neville let out a squeak and broke into a run- he tripped and grabbed Ron around the waist and the both of them went crashing into a suit of armour.

Jen was sure all the noise they were making had woken the whole castle.

"RUN!" Harry yelled and all five sprinted through the gallery without looking back for Filch. Jen ran faster then she had ever ran before as they swung around a doorpost and dashed down another corridor and then another. She could barley breath as they blindly ripped through a tapestry that was hiding a hidden passageway; they raced through it and ended up near the Charms classroom, Jen knew that it was miles away from the Trophy Room.

"I think we´ve lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the wall and whipping his forehead.

Jen was forcing the air down to her lungs, leaning on a wall so she wouldn´t fall over.

"I... _told_...you," Hermione gasped, clutching her chest. "I...told...you"

"We´ve got to go back to the Gryffindor Tower," Ron said. "Quickly as possible."

"I told you he wouldn´t come," Jen said, when she was able to talk again. "But you didn´t listen. I said he was going to trick you and I was right. It was probably him that told Filch that someone would be in the Trophy Room too."

"Let´s go," Harry said, pretending he hadn´t heard her.

They hadn´t even gotten a few steps when Peeves whizzed out from an abandoned classroom.

He gave an excited squeal when he saw them.

"Be quiet, Peeves, please, you´ll get us thrown out," Harry begged while Jen once again felt colour drained from her face.

Peeves only laughed and Jen knew that all hope was out for them.

"Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you´ll get caughty."

"Not if you don´t give us away Peeves, please."

"Should tell Filch, I should," Peeves said, his eyes glinting. "It´s for your own good, you know."

"Get out of the way," Ron said, taking a swipe at Peeves.

It was a big mistake.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed. "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

They ducked under him and ran for their lives to the end of the corridor. They slammed into the door at the end- it was looked.

"Now it´s over!" Ron groaned, as they helplessly pushed at the door. "Filch is going to catch us!"

Jen could hear Filch´s steps getting closer to Peeves screams.

"Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She grabbed Harry´s wand and tapped the lock. " _Alohomora_!"

The door swung open and they all piled through.

Jen was pushed to the back of the group, thanks to her short statue, and couldn´t listen at the door like the others. Instead she turned around and realised that she wasn´t standing in a room, as she had thought, but in a corridor. She wasn´t standing in a normal corridor either, she was standing in the forbidden corridor at the third floor. She now also knew why the corridor was forbidden as she stood frozen in fear in front of a gigantic three headed dog with yellow teeth and rolling mad eyes.

What in Merlin´s name is a Cerberus doing here, she thought. She had read about Cerberuses in one of her books about magical creatures and knew that they were a really dangerous creature.

The Cerberus looked rather chocked over their sudden appearance, and Jen realised that that was the only reason they were still alive. But it would soon be over its chock and attack them.

" _What_?"

Jen heard Harry snap at Neville but fell silent as he saw the Cerberus. Jen was completely frozen in fear but when Hermione screamed and got the door open she unfroze and ran out of the door with the others.

They practically flew through the corridors and up to the Fat Lady´s portrait. Jen didn´t care if Filch saw them, she just wanted to get as far away from the Cerberus as possible. They didn´t stop until they had reached the Fat Lady´s portrait on the seventh floor.

Luckily for them she had returned from wherever she had been.

"Where on earth have you been?" the Fat Lady demanded as she looked at their pyjamas and dressing gowns.

"Don´t care about that," Harry gasped.

"Pig Snout, Pig Snout!" Jen panted.

The portrait opened and they stumbled into the common room, collapsing in armchairs in front of the dying fire.

It took a couple of minutes before anyone spoke; Neville actually looked like he never would speak again.

"What do they think they´re doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron finally said. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."

"It´s not a dog, it's a Cerberus," Jen said.

"I don´t care what it´s called!" Ron snapped at her.

"You don´t use your eyes, any of you, do you?" Hermione snapped as she had both gotten her breath and bad temper back. "Didn´t you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn´t looking at its feet, I was focusing on its _three heads._ "

"No, _not_ the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It´s obviously guarding something."

She stood up, glaring at Harry and Ron.

"I hope you´re pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed- or worse, expelled. Now if you don´t mind, I´m going to bed."

After she had gone, Ron turned to Harry

"No, we don´t mind," he said, forgetting that Jen was still there. "You´d think we dragged her along, wouldn´t you?"

Jen glared at him and then stood up.

"Well, neither of us would have been out there if you hadn´t been stupid enough to believe Malfoy´s trick," she said. "Goodnight Neville," Jen said before following Hermione up to their dorm.

Hermione was waiting for Jen outside the door of their dorm. They exchanged a look that clearly said: What on earth is the Cerberus guarding?

As they didn´t have the answer to the question they quietly sneaked into their dorm, without waking Parvati and Lavender, and went back to bed.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I don´t own anything all rights go to J.K Rowling**

 **Chapter 8: Hallowe´en**

 **AN: I´m back! I´m sorry it´s been such a long time but at first I went away on vacation and then school started and I hadn´t time. I have finally found motivation and time to look through this chapter and continue writing, so I have actually written a lot and I have nearly finished writing chapter 15. I´m not sure when I'm going to post again but hopefully soon.**

 **Hope you enjoy the chapter**

The next day Jen, who was sore and bruised from her fall from the broom, and Hermione walked down to breakfast much earlier than Ron and Harry and saw Draco Malfoy sitting at the Slytherin table looking unusually happy. But when Harry and Ron finally walked into the Great Hall, Malfoy´s face fell and his eyes widened in disbelief.

During the day Jen and Hermione talked about what they thought the Cerberus was guarding. But after having talked about it for awhile they let the matter go, because Dumbledore had warned them about the third floor corridor at the start of term feast so he must know about the Cerberus and if Dumbledore knew about it they didn´t have to worry.

Hermione was also refusing to talk to Harry and Ron at all, Jen had followed suit and only talked to them if she had to during lessons. Hermione and Jen had decided that if they kept away from Harry and Ron the encounter with the Cerberus would be their last adventure that year and they could focus on their schoolwork.

It was about a week after their encounter with the Cerberus when something happened at breakfast. When the owls came to deliver mail as usual, everyone's attention were caught at once by a long thin package carried by six large screech owls. Jen was as curious as everyone else to see what was in the package and to whom it was sent to. She got quiet chocked when the owls dropped the package and a letter in front of Harry, who usually never got any mail.

She watched curiously as Harry opened the letter and read it with Ron reading over his shoulder.

"A Nimbus Two Thousand!" Jen heard Ron say after he and Harry had finished reading the letter. "I´ve never even _touched_ one."

Jen stared at the package in front of Harry with big round eyes and slightly open mouth. Peter had said that the Nimbus Two Thousand was the best broom in the market and Harry had just gotten one. Jen looked at the long thin package again, her feelings a mix between excitement and anger. She was excited because with a Nimbus Two Thousand they would be sure to win the Quidditch Cup this year and angry because he had gotten the broom as a reward for breaking the rules.

Harry and Ron left quickly after they had finished reading the letter and Hermione, who was as angry as Jen at them for being rewarded for breaking the rules, stood up and followed them, with Jen right behind her.

When Hermione and Jen had come out in the Entrance Hall they saw Harry and Ron talk with Malfoy and his cronies. They walked closer and Jen heard Ron say:

"It´s not any broomstick, it´s a Nimbus Two Thousand. What did you say you´ve got at home, Malfoy, a Comet Two Sixty?" Ron grinned at Harry. "Comets look flashy, but they´re not in the same league as the Nimbus."

"What would you know about it, Weasley, you couldn´t afford half the handle," Malfoy snapped back. "I suppose you and your brothers have to save up, twig by twig."

Jen clenched her fists in anger at Malfoy as he wasn´t only mocking Ron but also Fred and George. She might not like Ron that much but she definitely liked Fred and George and that was why she was so happy when she remembered how angry and chocked Malfoy had looked when Ron told him that it was a Nimbus Two Thousand Harry had gotten.

"Not arguing, I hope, boys?" Jen heard Professor Flitwick, who had just popped up at Malfoy´s elbow, squeak.

"Potter´s been sent a broomstick, Professor," Malfoy said quickly.

"Yes, yes, that´s right," Professor Flitwick said, beaming at Harry. "Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Potter. And what model is it?"

Jen smiled as she saw Malfoy´s shocked and angry expression but at the same time she was furious because Harry was allowed to have a broomstick even if he was only a first-year.

"A Nimbus Two Thousand, sir," Harry said. "And it´s really thanks to Malfoy here that I´ve got it," he added.

With that Harry and Ron headed upstairs and as Jen followed them together with Hermione she could hear them smothering their laughter. Jen was also trying to not laugh at Malfoy´s chocked and angry expression, but failed which earned her a sharp glare from Hermione. At Hermione´s glare Jen´s sniggering stopped and the amusement disappeared and the anger returned.

"Well, it´s true," Harry chortled when he and Ron reached the top of the marble staircase. "If he hadn´t stolen Neville´s Remember all I wouldn´t be on the team..."

"So I suppose you think that´s a reward for breaking rules?" Hermione, who couldn´t hold her rage back anymore, said.

Jen was only a step behind Hermione, glaring at Harry and Ron.

"I thought you two weren´t speaking to us?" Harry said.

"Yes, don´t stop now," Ron said. "It´s doing us so much good."

Jen´s glare intensified as Hermione huffed and marched away.

"You know, it doesn´t hurt to be nice," she said.

Ron glared back at her and then said:

"The not speaking part was for you too."

Jen threw a last glare at Ron before turning and marching after Hermione.

She caught up with Hermione when they were nearly back at the common room.

"Those two are so rude," Jen said to Hermione.

"I know," Hermione said. "I don´t understand how the teacher's could´ve rewarded Harry for breaking the rules. It's so infuriating!"

"I know," Jen said equally annoyed. "But it doesn´t seem like we can do anything."

Hermione nodded and they both sighed in annoyance before climbed into the common room.

((&))

Jen didn´t know what it was, maybe it was all the lessons and homework, but she could hardly believe that she had been two month at Hogwarts. It had become her second home with her house mates as her second family. The lessons had also become more interesting as they had mastered the basics.

On Hallowe´en morning when Jen woke up she was met with the delicious smell of baking pumpkin. But even better than that was that Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly, something Jen had been dying to try since she had seen Professor Flitwick make Neville´s toad zoom around the classroom.

Professor Flitwick had put them all into pairs to practise. Jen and Harry were partnered together, which neither of them liked but was glad for anyway as Neville had tried to catch each of their eyes in turn in the hope that he could work with ether of them. Ron and Hermione had also, unfortunately, been partnered together and it was hard to tell which of them was angrier about it.

Jen hadn´t spoken to neither Harry nor Ron since the day Harry´s broom had arrived so the lesson begun in an awkward silence.

"Now, don´t forget that nice wrist movement we´ve been practising!" Professor Flitwick squeaked, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too- never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said `s´ instead of `f´ and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."

It was very difficult. Harry and Jen swished and flicked, but the feather they were supposed to be sending skywards just lay on their desktop. Seamus, who was working with Neville at the table beside them, got so impatient that he prodded his feather with the tip of his wand and set fire to it- Harry and Jen had to help them put it out with their hats.

Ron, at the table at the other side of Harry and Jen, wasn´t having much more luck either.

" _Wingardium Leviosa_!" he shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill.

Jen had to duck to avoid getting her eye taken out with his wand.

"You´re saying it wrong," Hermione snapped, while Jen glared at Ron. "It´s Wing- _gar_ -dium Levi- _o_ -sa, make the `gar´ nice and long."

"You do it, if you´re so clever," Ron snarled.

Jen glared more viciously at him but Hermione only rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand and said: " _Wingardium Leviosa_!"

Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet in the air.

"Oh, well done!" Professor Flitwick cried, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"

The classroom became quiet as everyone was looking at Hermione's feather. Ron looked liked someone had slapped him and Jen smirked as she thought he deserved it.

Jen looked back at her own feather when she heard Harry trying the incantation again. She lifted her own wand and tried the spell again, following Hermione's instructions.

" _Wingardium Leviosa_!" she said but nothing happened.

After five more tries Jen´s feather, to her great surprise, rose up in the air and joined Hermione´s.

((&))

When the lesson ended Hermione and Jen walked out of the classroom and into the bustling halls just behind Harry and Ron.

Ron was in an awful mood and was ranting to Harry.

"It´s no wonder no one can stand her," Jen heard him say to Harry and she immediately felt anger rise inside her on Hermione´s behalf. "She´s a nightmare, honestly."

Jen heard a strangled sob beside her before Hermione walked past her and pushed past Harry and Ron. Jen was fuming when she saw her friend crying.

"I think she heard you," Harry said startled.

"So?" Ron said, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She must´ve noticed she´s got no friends."

"Just so you know, Ron, I´m her friend," Jen spat at him as she walked up to them. "But, maybe, I´m not a good enough person to be reckoned to be anyone´s friend."

"I never said..." Ron started but Jen cut him off.

"No, but it was so it sounded," Jen said. "And Ron, just so you know, it´s actually a wonder that you have any friends with how rude you are."

With that Jen walked away from them in search for Hermione.

It took some time before Jen could find Hermione and it actually wasn´t until Parvati told her she had heard her crying in the bathroom that Jen found her.

When Jen walked into the bathroom she could hear crying coming from one of the stalls and walked up to it.

"Hermione, it´s Jen," she said.

Hermione stopped crying and were quiet in a couple of seconds before she answered.

"Go away!"

"No, I won´t!" Jen said firmly and sat down against the wall opposite the stall Hermione was in. "I will sit here until you come out."

It was about fifteen minutes before Hermione finally came out off the stall. Her eyes were red from all the crying, but she gave Jen a sad smile before sitting down beside her.

"Hey," she said.

"Hey," Jen answered.

They were both silent in a couple of minutes.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione eventually said. "You´re missing the rest of the lessons and the Hallowe´en feast."

"I don´t care, my _friend_ was crying and I wanted to be there for her," Jen said and smiled at Hermione.

Hermione didn´t say anything at first, but then she wrapped her arms around Jen in a hug.

"You´re a really good friend, do you know that?" she said and released Jen.

Jen giggled before standing up.

"Shall we go to the feast? It should have started by now."

"Okay," Hermione said and stood up.

They had just started to walk towards the door when Jen felt a disgusting smell; she thought it smelled like a combination of her brother's unwashed socks and a public toilet.

"What´s that for smell?" she said as she draw the sleeve of her robe over her nose.

A minute later her question was answered by a giant troll walking into the room. Jen stared at the troll as it lumbered in through the door, it was about twelve feet tall and had coconut like head with big ears. It lumbered into the middle of the room where it stopped and looked around. It didn´t seemed to have seen either of the two girls so the both of them tried to quietly sneak along the wall towards the door. They would have succeeded in sneaking through the door without the troll noticing them if someone hadn´t slammed it shut with a deafening bang.

When the troll heard the bang it slowly turned towards the door and immediately noticed Hermione and Jen, who stood just a few feet from the door, it stared at them in a couple of seconds before roaring loudly and walking towards them while swinging its giant club.

Jen and Hermione screamed at the top of their lungs and then bolted with the troll´s club smashing down just behind them. They ran to the opposite side of the room from the door where they froze in fear, hugging each other.

The troll was first confused as it realised that it hadn´t hit anything with the club but then it turned noticed them huddled at the opposite side of the room and roared once more before walking towards them. It was advancing on them, smashing down sinks as it went, when, suddenly, Harry and Ron barged into the room.

Harry said something that Jen couldn´t hear with how much noise the troll made and then he threw a tap at the wall.

The tap made a clinking sound and the troll stopped a few feet from Hermione and Jen and then turned around to see what had made the noise. First it only stared dumbly at Harry before it roared again and started to lumber towards Harry while swinging the club over its head.

"Oy, pea-brain!" Ron yelled at the troll from the other side of the chamber, and then threw a metal pipe at it.

The troll didn´t seem to notice the metal pipe hitting it but at Ron´s loud shout it turned to stare dumbly at him.

As the troll was distracted Harry ran around it and shouted at Jen and Hermione to run, but neither of them could move. Jen was so scared that even when Harry tried to pull her away, she couldn´t move, and neither could Hermione.

The troll roared and Jen squeaked in fear as it started towards Ron who had no way to escape.

At that moment Harry did something Jen thought was incredibly stupid: he jumped up on the trolls back and stuck his wand up in its nose.

The troll howled in pain as it twisted and flailed with its club, nearly hitting Jen and Hermione, with Harry clinging to its back.

Hermione sunk the floor in fright at the near miss of the club but Jen was to terrified to move and just stood there looking at the horrifying scene.

" _Wingardium Leviosa_!" Jen suddenly heard Ron yell and her head whipped in his direction to see that he had pulled out his wand and pointed it at the troll. Her head whipped back to the troll in time to see its club, which Ron had levitated in the air, fall back on its head with a sickening crack.

The troll swayed and then fell face first to the ground. The thud when the troll hit the ground made the whole room tremble.

The room became deathly quiet as all four of them stared at the motionless troll. Jen wondering if it was dead as it didn´t seem to be breathing.

Hermione seemed to have thought the same thing as she was the first break the silence.

"Is it – dead?"

"I don´t think so," Harry said. "I think it´s just been knocked out."

He then bent down and pulled his wand out of the troll´s nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy grey glue. Jen gagged and nearly threw up when she saw it.

"Urgh- troll bogies."

Harry then wiped the wand on the troll´s trousers.

A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made all four of them look up. It wasn´t until now that Jen realised what a racket they had been making, but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the crashes and the troll´s roars. A moment later, Professor McGonagall came bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell only a step behind. Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart.

Snape bent over the troll while Professor McGonacall was looking at Harry and Ron, looking angrier then Jen ever had seen her.

"What on earth were you thinking of?" Professor McGonagall said, with could fury in her voice. Harry was looking at Ron, who still had his wand in the air and Jen wished desperately he would take it down. "You´re lucky you weren´t killed. Why aren´t you in your dormitory?"

Neither Harry nor Ron answered as they were looking horrified at Professor McGonagall.

They´re going to be thrown out of Hogwarts, Jen thought as she tried desperately coming up with an idea to save them.

As Jen stood frozen desperately trying to come up with a plan to save Harry and Ron a small voice came from beside her.

"Please, Professor McGonagall- they were looking for me and Jen."

"Miss Granger, Miss MacAvity!"

Hermione had managed to get to her feet at last and when Jen heard her voice she finally unfroze.

"I went looking for the troll because I – I thought I could deal with it on my own- you know, because I´ve read all about them," Hermione continued.

"Yeah, and when I found out what she was going to do I went with her. I – I thought we had a better chance to defeat the troll if we were two," Jen said shakily immediately joining in on Hermione's plan.

Ron´s wand clattered down on the floor as he and Harry stared at Jen and Hermione looking as if they had just been hit by lightning.

"If they hadn´t found us, we´d be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club," Hermione said and then stopped uncertain how to continue.

"They didn´t have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish us off when they arrived," Jen finished for her.

"Well- in that case..." Professor McGonagall said, staring at the four of them. "Miss Granger, Miss MacAvity, you foolish girls, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"

Jen hung her head. She was dreading the punishment that McGonagall was going to give them. Thoughts of detention and losing House Points were flying through her head as she was looking down at her feet.

"Miss Granger, Miss MacAvity, five points each will be taken from Gryffindor for this," Professor McGonagall said. "I´m very disappointed in you both. If neither of you is hurt at all, you´d better get off to the Gryffindor Tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses."

Jen and Hermione hurried out of the chamber.

They walked in silence up to the Gryffindor Tower where they stopped outside the Fat Lady´s portrait.

"Pig Snout," Jen said.

When they climbed into the common room they saw that the feast had already started. They didn´t join it, instead they stayed beside the door.

"Are you okay?" Jen asked Hermione.

"Yeah, you?"

Jen nodded and a minute later Harry and Ron climbed through the portrait hole. There was a very embarrassed pause. Then, without any of them looking at each other, they all said "Thanks", and hurried off to get plates.

From that day Jennifer MacAvity and Hermione Granger were friends with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley.


End file.
